Daddy Dearest
by ForgeandGred7
Summary: The next generation Marauders were excited to be returning for their 3rd year at Hogwarts. However with Charlie teaching, friendships tested and shocking secrets revealed, will they prevail? Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1

A flash of lightning illuminated the dark room and a loud clap of thunder sounded overhead, shaking the house.

The blonde's eyes travelled nervously to the red-head in the bed but he did nothing more than stir feebly. She continued to bustle about the room, taking care not to step too heavily on the wooden floor boards in fear of waking him.

She crept over to it, all the while eyeing the red head warily.

She fumbled in the dark for the handle on the cabinet drawers. The thought of turning a light on was tempting, but she dare not risk it.

Thankfully though, just as she missed the handle for the umpteenth time, the clouds in the dark night sky parted to reveal the moon. Its pallid glow filtered in through the lace curtains and allowed her just the right amount of light to see what she was doing.

Her heart hammered inside her chest when she heard the man in the bed stir again, and she knew she had to hurry if she were to get away before he woke up.

Just as she reached out her hand to open the cabinet drawers to collect her things, the moonlight glinted off of the ring on her left hand and reflected the light off of the picture frame on the end table.

The blonde took a moment to look at it, feeling the tears beginning to well up. It was of her and him - not long after they'd started dating.

Back when they'd been happier.

She knew what she was doing was wrong. She knew that it was cruel. But still, she couldn't bring herself to stay. Not while she knew the secret she was carrying. It was all too much.

Too much, too soon.

Sparing one last glance at the silver frame and the picture it held, she finished packing her bag and stood up slowly - leaning on the bed for support - and slipped the ring off her finger.

Holding it for one last time, she admired the sparkle of the diamond in the light. It reminded her of the sparkle in his eyes, the kind he got whenever he laughed. She hadn't had that sparkle in her own eyes for a long time.

She hoped, that by leaving, perhaps it would come back? Only time would tell. Time that was fast running out as she saw the sky beginning to light up along the horizon.

And so after placing the ring down by the picture frame, and after picking up her bag, she left.

Fleeing into the night.

* * *

**_13 Years Later_**

* * *

Charlotte Williams groaned in frustration for the tenth thousandth time that morning.

She pulled opened her trunk and began to throw clothes and objects at random, barely missing her Jobberknoll, Tess.

The little blue bird darted in all different directions in an attempt to dodge the onslaught of clothes being fired in her direction. But her little wings could only move so fast before she was hit by a pair of jeans.

"Idiot!" chirped Tess as she struggled to find her way out from under the pair of jeans that had pinned her to the wooden floor.

"Oh stop complaining and help me find it! We're not going back to Hogwarts without it!" Charlotte cried, completely exasperated. The one time her bird chose to be snippy with her, and she actually needed her help.

Getting onto her stomach, she looked under the bed for her wand. There was no chance of going to school without it.

"What now?" Tess asked, a bored edge to her human-like voice. She ruffled her feathers before taking off back into the air and hovering over to the bed.

"My wand!" Charlotte snapped, she had never realised how messy it was under her bed. "MUUUMM!"

Phoebe sighed at her daughters impatient yelling and ascended the stairs. "What is all the yelling about?!" she grumbled in the doorway, just managing to dodge one of her daughters' socks. "It sounds like a bloody Cat's choir up here."

"CAT!" squeaked Tess, and she little round bird hurried to hide behind the jewellery box on the dressing table.

Charlotte rolled her eyes at her pet, who was shaking like a leaf and refusing to come out.

"Did you have to mention the word Cat? You know she's terrified of them," she frowned, not stopping her search under her bed.

"What are you looking for?" Phoebe asked, ignoring Charlotte's comment.

"My wand,"' Charlotte repeated.

"Why do you need that?" Phoebe asked suspiciously.

Charlotte gave her an 'are you stupid?' look.

"To go to Hogwarts!" she replied.

"I thought we agreed you wouldn't go this year," Phoebe sighed.

"No," Charlotte said through gritted teeth. "YOU decided I wasn't going back this year," she corrected.

"Be that as it may, I've already cancelled the taxi that was supposed to take you to the station. You're not going. And besides, I don't know where your wand is," Phoebe said dismissively.

Tess heard the raised voices, and poked her head around the edge of the jewellery box. The little bird noted the way Phoebe placed her hands on her hips, and stared her daughter down. A fight was about to take place.

Deciding that she wasn't about to stick around for another shouting match, Tess decided to make her move and fly through the open door. She was half-way there, managing to go unnoticed for the most part - when she passed Phoebe, and saw something out of the corner of her big black eyes.

Something long sticking out of Phoebe's back pocket.

Charlotte's wand.

"Wand!" she chirped excitedly. "Wand! Wand! Wand!".

Charlotte blinked at her pet. "What?" she asked confusedly.

"Wand!" Tess cried again, and was about to dive and retrieve it for her owner when Phoebe moved out of the way, causing Tess to collide with the nearby wall.

"The bloody bird doesn't know what she's on about!" Phoebe insisted, looking between her bewildered daughter and the semi-concussed bird.

"No - Tess is never wrong. It's one of the perks of having a Jobberknoll as a pet," Charlotte smirked. "Mum, give me my wand," she demanded, holding out her hand.

"You're not going," Phoebe said coldly.

"Want to bet?" Charlotte challenged.

"What are you going to do?" Phoebe smirked, pulling the key to Charlotte's bedroom door out of her cardigan pocket.

Charlotte's eyebrows shot up, shocked that her Mum would stoop so low. "Oh, I'M not going to do anything," she corrected. "Tess, bring me my wand".

And before Phoebe could even blink, the tiny bird had shot up into the air and grabbed Charlotte's wand in-between her beak.

Tess closed the distance between her and Charlotte quickly enough, despite the fact that the wand was really too heavy for her, and dropped it into her owners waiting hand.

"Come at me," the bird challenged with a nod of her head, and lowered herself slowly onto Charlotte's shoulder.

"So," Charlotte started. "What time is the taxi coming, again?" she asked sweetly.

"Fine," Phoebe growled. "You want to go to Hogwarts, then YOU can get yourself there"

"What's new? You've ditched me every other year, why should this one be any different?" Charlotte shrugged, refusing to let her mother see how much this was really hurting her.

"I kept you," Phoebe snarled. "Which is more than your father ever did". With one last harsh look, she turned on her heel and left the room. The door slamming shut behind her.

The silence in the room was deafening, and as Charlotte's shoulders slumped, and her eyes began to water, she really struggled to keep a lid on her emotions.

She had never known her father.

He had left before she was born -or so Phoebe said- but Charlotte had to admit, if she could she would meet him. He had to be a lot better than her mother.

She felt a single tear trickle down her cheek, and ashamed to admit she was crying over her mother - a person who had never particularly cared about her - she wiped it away angrily.

"Friend?"

Charlotte lifted her head and turned to the right to find Tess hovering at eye-level, staring her right in the eyes. There was no mistaking the emotion that filled Tess's big black orbs: Concern.

"I'm fine," Charlotte assured her, and wiped at her eyes again.

Tess continued to blink at her.

"Seriously, I'm fine," Charlotte repeated again.

Tess, who clearly wasn't convinced continued to stare for a few seconds more, before hovering over slowly to wipe away another stray tear with her beak. The little drop of water slid down Tess's pointed black beak, and halted for a moment before falling down and landing in the middle of inky blue feathers.

She ruffled them furiously, upset at getting wet, and the action caused a gargle of laughter to escape from Charlotte's throat.

"Come on, Tessie," Charlotte sniffed. "Let's go. We have to meet the boys remember?"

At the mention of 'boys' Tess's whole attitude changed.

She flitted over to the mirror and lowered herself onto the floor in front of it to begin priming her feathers and making sure she looked nice.

Charlotte leaned against the wall, watching her bird fuss over her appearance, and she was unable to stop herself from laughing.

"Tess, Padfoot really isn't going to care if your feathers aren't clean," she chuckled. Tess sent her a death glare in response.

Charlotte sniggered again, finding it funny that Tess was making such a big deal about looking nice. She never bothered about her appearance. Except when Padfoot was around - James Potter's big dark barn owl. Tess had been in love with him, pretty much since the moment she'd set eyes on him.

"Come on you little Love Bird, hop on my shoulder. We're heading out," Charlotte told her, and draped her brown hair over her other shoulder so that Tess would be more comfortable.

Tess did one last once over of her appearance before nodding at herself in the mirror, and taking off to land on Charlotte's shoulder.

Charlotte hurriedly threw her clothes in her trunk and closed the lid.

Without saying goodbye to her mother, she pulled the trunk down the stairs and with Tess on her shoulder, walked out the front door and onto the street.

They were leaving their house to head home.


	2. Chapter 2

The harsh September wind blew through Kings Cross Station, causing Charlotte's hair to whip around her face. Her eyes were watering as she squinted to see against the bitter cold gusts, and even Tess struggled to stay perched on her shoulder.

"Hurry!" she chirped, quietly enough in Charlotte's ear that no muggles nearby would hear the little bird talking, but loud enough that Charlotte heard the panic in it. "I'm trying to get out of it! Hang on," she grunted back as she struggled to push her way through a group of muggles. The station was packed - even more so than usual - making it hard for Charlotte to meander her way through the bustling crowds in her attempt to reach Platform 9 3/4. Her arms were aching from lugging her trunk all the way from her house to the bus station, and then from the bus station to Kings Cross. Damn her Mother for cancelling the taxi.

By the time she reached the magical barrier between platforms 9 and 10, her arms felt as though they were on fire and all she wanted to do was collapse. Even Tess was exhausted from holding on to her so tightly - having nearly been blown clean off her shoulder almost three times! "Well," Charlotte managed to say in-between pants. "We made it."

"Made it," Tess squeaked, too tired to say anything else as she collapsed back onto Charlotte's shoulder.

Charlotte smirked at her furry friend. "I wouldn't do that if I were you Tess, you'll mess up your feathers! Padfoot won't like that now will he?" she teased. As expected, Tess shot up and began frantically fixing herself. Charlotte just shook her head at her, and rolled her eyes as she picked her trunk back up again and trudged through the barrier to the Wizarding World.

Charlotte was used to doing things on her own yet she still couldn't help to wish that her mother had seen her off. Phoebe was a muggle-born witch but had very little interest in the wizarding world. Charlotte let out a sigh of relief and leaned back against a stone pillar as she reached the other side. The Wizarding World. It felt so good to be back. Back home.

"Home," Tess chirped, gazing wide eyed around the bustling platform. "Home," Charlotte nodded, and she and her pet shared a look - both of them seeing the sparkle return to the others eyes.

Of course, even at home, there were some things Charlotte hated. One of them being the whistle, which blew through the station - signalling that the Hogwarts Express was preparing to leave the station. All she wanted to do was relax her arms for two seconds! Was there no justice in the world?

Another being Isobel Greengrass who took great pleasure in hassling Charlotte as she struggled to heave her trunk up the stairs of the train.

"Bloody Hell, I'm moving as fast as I can alright?" Charlotte snarled over her shoulder at the bully. Her poor arms were in intense physical pain trying to push the trunk onto the train.

"Yeah, well not bloody fast enough," Isobel pointed out snidely. "Mind you, that shouldn't really surprise me now should it? You're not known for being the fastest broom in the shed are you?" she smirked.

A loud thump was all that was heard as Charlotte dropped her trunk, and gritted her jaw as she turned around slowly to face her enemy. "Oh yeah? Well at least I'm not known as the "Village Broom" where every guy gets a ride," Charlotte growled back. The bitch who was two years above her was notorious for being the School's slut. "Village Broom," Tess agreed, thinking of all the ways she could demolish Isobel's face with her beak.

"Y-You - COW!" Isobel spat, seeming to struggle for a decent comeback.

"Oh please, I could down a bowl of alphabet soup and shit a better comeback than that," Charlotte drawled, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Better comeback," Tess chirped, hovering behind Charlotte's shoulder and sending Isobel death glares.

"I-I-I've never been s-so insulted!" Isobel stuttered. "Oh really? Well clearly you haven't heard what the guys say about you in the Quidditch Locker Rooms," Charlotte smiled sweetly. Isobel moved swiftly, she reached into her pocket and whipped out her wand before Charlotte could even thinking about getting her own. "You're going to regret that, you little bitch," Isobel growled. She raised her wand before Charlotte could react but as Isobel opened her mouth to curse the younger girl, a hand grabbed her wrist.

"Well now," a voice said cheerfully "you want to be careful with that wand, Missy, you don't want to hurt anyone, do you?". Though it was clear, Isobel desired nothing more than to hurt Charlotte, she shook her head.

"No," she replied coldly, as she looked the man up and down. "Sir." The way Isobel said it was so condescending, so mocking, that Charlotte struggled not to jump the bitch then and there.

Even though the man's shaggy red hair hung in his dark blue eyes - drawing attention to the scars and burns on his face - and his clothes were worn and tattered, he didn't deserve to be looked at as though he were something stuck to the bottom of Isobel's shoe.

Charlotte stared up at the man who had just helped her -not that she couldn't handle Isobel on her own- and he felt her big blue orbs on him, and glanced out of the corner of his own eyes to wink at her.

Realizing that they'd gained quite the audience, and that even students on the train were pressing their faces up against the glass windows to stare at them - the man released his hold on Isobel.

He was glad to see that she lowered her wand immediately.

"You'd better get on the train," he advised in a voice that was stern, yet still kind. Even though Isobel smiled sweetly up at him, her nose was still wrinkled in disgust. "Of course," she nodded and turned back to Charlotte to say her final words. "See you at school," she bid in a menacing voice, and shot one last death glare her way before shoving past her and onto the train. Charlotte wasn't the only one who let out a sigh of relief once Isobel was out of sight - even Tess seemed to release a breath she'd been holding and nestled herself back atop Charlotte's shoulder.

That's when Charlotte felt a pair of eyes on her, and tilted her head upwards to find the man still standing there.

Feeling nervous all of a sudden, and not really sure what to say to him, she blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"You stopped her," she said simply - and then mentally slapped herself. Stating the obvious much?

The man didn't seem to mind though, he just chuckled. "Yes I did," he nodded.

"Thanks," she saw awkwardly, turning back to her trunk and lifting up one end of it to try and shove it up the stairs.

"Don't mention it," he smiled - before seeing that she was struggling and stepping in to help again. "Here, let me," he offered and gently brushed her hands aside and lifted the trunk effortlessly onto the train.

Charlotte gaped at him. "You're strong," she blurted out. 'Oh please,' she mentally begged. 'Just let the floor swallow me up now.'

Why did she have to be such an idiot around strangers? Again, the man didn't seem to be bothered by her nuttiness, and his shoulders shook as he chuckled again. "Comes with years of practice," he told her.

"Practice with what?" she asked curiously.

"Well, let's just say that in my line of work you need to be strong - otherwise you won't last very long."

"Oh so you're a Wrestler," she guessed - before realizing how stupid that must have sounded. 'Oh yes Charlotte, because there's plenty of those marching around Platform 9 ¾' she thought to herself. She wished someone would just push her in front of a train now. "I guess you could say that," he mused, as he handed the trunk up to the conductor.

That's when Charlotte caught a glimpse of his hands and saw how calloused and scared they really were.

"How did you get those?" she asked without thinking. The man followed her line of vision and shrugged nonchalantly. "Occupational hazard." Charlotte mulled that over for a second before replying. "I can relate to that, my arm was just about falling off from trying to get that trunk onto the train - thank you again," she said with a small smile.

"My pleasure," the man replied, returning her smile. "Speaking of which, where are your parents? I'd have thought they'd be around to help you with your trunk?". Charlotte floundered for a moment, opening and closing her mouth repeatedly - without the slightest clue how to answer.

Thankfully Tess came to her rescue, speaking up for the first time in minutes. "Not here," she chirped, eyeing the man curiously. There was just something about him that Tess couldn't shake.

The man's eyes widened at the little bird. "Your bird talks?"

Tess puffed out her feathers angrily. She hated being called a 'bird'. And Charlotte held up a hand to block her path as Tess attempted to attack the strangers face. "Is that a Jobberknoll? They're uncommonly rare," the man gasped at the little bird. Tess puffed out her feathers proudly at that - she liked to be known as "rare".

Now it was Charlotte's turn to gasp. "Y-You know what a Jobberknoll is? But nobody knows what a Jobberknoll is! Most people think she's a budgie!' The man laughed heartily at that, causing the corners of his blue eyes to wrinkle. "Oh trust me I know what they are, my brother is developing a line of them for his shop. I visited him just last week and got to see a few of them, they're amazing creatures - so intelligent!"

Tess chirped in agreement, proud that the stranger seemed to appreciate her. "I know, that's what I love about her," Charlotte smiled. "This is Tess by the way. I'm Charlotte," she introduced herself and extended her hand to shake the strangers. "Nice to meet you - Tess, Charlotte," he nodded in greeting as he shook Charlotte's hand. "I'm-"

The final whistle sounded throughout the station and steam from the train began to fill the platform.

"-Apparently late," he acknowledged as he examined the clock. 11:00am. "It was nice meeting you both, but I really must get going," he said hurriedly and picked up his travelling bag and waved at them as he hurried off down the platform. Charlotte stared after him, until she could no longer see him for the steam and hopped up the stairs just as the conductor closed the door - making sure that Tess was nestled safely inside the hood of her jumper. She wondered who he was, or if she'd ever see him again - but as the train began to move forward and left the station, her excitement returned, and a whole new set of thoughts began to flood her mind.

"Tess," she said over her shoulder. "It's time to find the boys".

* * *

Charlotte pushed her way through the throng of students that filled the narrow hallway of the Hogwarts Express.

"AH- Bloody Hell," she muttered under her breath as some sixth year stomped on her foot in an attempt to get past her. She leaned back against a compartment door to catch her breath.

'Please,' she silently begged. 'Let them be in one of these first compartments?' She didn't think her feet could take much more stomping.

With that in mind, she pushed herself off the door to continue her way down the packed hallway. After being pushed and shoved another few times, her prayers were finally answered.

Charlotte grinned as she looked inside the third compartment she reached.

Sean Finnigan sat inside, reading a book, contentedly. His sandy blonde hair was neat and smooth atop his head, and his green eyes dazzled in the light streaming in through the window. She chuckled at how his face was smudged with dirt, which wasn't uncommon to see - Sean was always blowing things up, one way or another.

She slid open the door – much to Tess's relief who hurried to get inside - and Sean looked up to greet her.

"Charlotte!" he beamed once he realized who it was, and before she could even process what was happening, he'd closed the distance between them with two easy strides and enveloped her in a hug.

She blinked stupidly for a few minutes before she regained control of her arms and was able to hug him back. She'd just expected him to give her a high-five or a pat on the back like he usually did! Not a hug! Not that she wasn't used to hugging him (or jumping on him, wrestling him or anything else), they'd been best friends since they were 11 but…this hug was…different. It was quite touchy – too touchy for Tess's liking as she eyed his hands.

With one hand he held the small of her back, pulling her body closer to his own, while the other cupped her waist and snaked up and down her back.

Her skin felt on fire wherever he touched and caused goosebumps to rise along her arms. What the hell was happening?!

She pulled away abruptly, not really liking this new…touchiness, and thought it best to sit across from him on the seat rather than next to him like she usually did.

Sean sensed her discomfort and the way she shifted from side to side awkwardly in her chair. Damn him for not being able to control himself – he'd sworn to himself he would be able to.

Tess hovered between the two of them, reading their emotions. If she weren't a bird she'd be laughing – oh this was so awkward.

"So," Charlotte started in an attempt to ease the tension. "How was your Summer?"

"Ok," he said with a smile, though it did not quite reach his eyes. Charlotte knew why – and it wasn't because of the awkward hug/embrace/whatever the hell that had been. It had been a full moon not too long ago and Sean always got cranky as well as extremely tired around that time. He took Wolfsbane Potion to ease the symptoms a little bit – but there was only so much it could do around the Full Moon to help him. No matter what, he always preferred his meat on the rare side and felt sick when he was kept away from the Moons light.

Unlike his Mother, Sean was not a full Werewolf. Although he had inherited a few 'Wolfy habbits' as he and his friends liked to call them, from her. Charlotte felt sorry for him sometimes – out of his two other siblings, Sean was the only one to have his type of condition. It couldn't have been easy being the black sheep in the family.

"How's Callahan and Alli?" she asked. "Does it feel weird to have them both at Hogwarts now?"

"Ugh," he groaned. "Don't get me started – it's Callahan's last year and all Summer, all he did was prattle on about how he's Head Boy. And Alli's been stressing over what house she's going to be sorted into. It's been a bloody nightmare," he sighed. "Anyway, moving on. How was your Summer?"

"Could have been better," she mumbled back, tilting her head to the side to gaze out at the passing fields and endless countryside.

"What happened?' Sean asked sympathetically, leaning forward a bit in his chair. Charlotte saw him move closer and tried quickly to change the subject again. The goosebumps still hadn't gone away after that 'hug'.

"Later," she said, waving him off. "Where's Fred and James?"

The corners of Sean's mouth twitched into a smile. "It's safer not to ask," he chuckled, causing Charlotte to giggle too. His smile grew wider at that – oh how he loved her laugh.

"That's true" she admitted, and started stroking Tess's feathers as she slept in her lap and looking out the window again.

Almost as if on cue, the door slid open again and her two other best friends entered – laughing over their latest prank.

"-Did you see the look on her face?" Fred asked gleefully.

"Yeah," James laughed. "Poor Mols!"

"Poor Mols?!" Fred cried incredulously. "She thinks she's bloody perfect now or something, James she's a prat!"

"You're not wrong there," James grinned.

"Oh tell me you haven't pranked poor Molly? You know she doesn't have a sense of humo-"

However Charlotte was unable to finish her sentence, for the second Fred saw her sitting there, he hurried over to her and picked Charlotte up off the seat as he scooped her into a tight hug.

"Fred!" Charlotte squealed, tightening her hold around his neck as he spun her. "Put me down now!"

Fred did as he was told and once she was safely on the ground she grinned up at him.

His ginger hair was sticking out in all different directions, with random tufts of untameable hair pointing out at random angles. Having said that however, his hair didn't look messy. It looked rugged – giving him the appearance that he'd been up to no good, and Charlotte knew that was just the way he liked it. She giggled when she saw that he'd gained another coating of freckles across his nose over the Summer – he'd always been a freckly beast – and that he hadn't lost that mischievous sparkle in his eyes.

"It's good to see you," she smiled up at him – he was at least two heads taller than she was.

"Likewise m'lday," he teased. "I mean look at you! Come on give us a twirl," he joked and picked up one of her hands and made her spin around. She'd changed a lot over the Summer – her hair was longer for one thing, and her skin more tanned too. Although it wasn't the same shade as his light brown skin – more of a glowy kind of tan. She'd also gotten taller, as well as gaining a few more curves. "Oh, our little girl is all grown up," Fred teased.

"Oh, shut it you," she laughed, making an attempt to swipe at his shoulder.

He dodged it effortlessly and flopped into her newly vacated seat. "I'm serious!" he defended. "Jamesie, tell her she looks smashing will you?"

Charlotte's breath caught in her throat at the mention of James, having completely forgotten he was here too, and she turned around to be greeted by his handsome crooked smile.

"You look gorgeous," he grinned and started walking over to her slowly for a hug.

She felt her cheeks turn red at the compliment, and she tried to drape her hair over her shoulder in attempt to hide them from the boys. "You're not so bad yourself," she quipped, in an attempt to be playful but realized she was flirting instead.

Before she had time to mentally slap herself, James had snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her in for a hug. The pair rocked from side to side, and it seemed like neither of them were willing to part from the other – until Sean cleared his throat loudly.

Fred was amused to see that Sean was giving James a death glare – which James failed to notice as he was smirking at Charlotte's bright red cheeks.

After pulling away, Charlotte and James just stood there looking at one another – both at a loss for something to say. Hadn't both of them been thinking about seeing each other again all Summer? And now that it was happening, they were floundering for something to say! So Charlotte said the first thing that came to mind.

"You need a haircut Jamsie," she teased.

Everyone in the compartment seemed to breathe a sigh of relief that the awkward tension was gone.

"Mum tried," James chuckled, attempting to flatten his dark black hair. "It just isn't happening."

"It's OK," Charlotte shrugged, going to take a seat next to Fred by the window. "It suits you." She hadn't realized she'd complimented him until she saw his face light up, and she blushed furiously again.

"I suppose I'll keep it then," he winked in response.

Charlotte laughed nervously, and looked around the compartment for a distraction. Her eyes landed on Sean, who was fuming in his chair. She didn't miss the annoyance in his expression, or his clenched jaw, and she wondered just how much the four of them had changed over the summer.

Well, except for Fred, he was still the same lovable idiot he always had been and Charlotte was grateful for that.

"Padfoot?!" Tessie chirped, making her presence known to the rest of the group by flying all around James looking for his handsome bird.

"Sorry Tessie," James sniggered. "Padfoot is in his cage right now."

The Jobberknoll had just spent five minutes examining her feathers in the windows reflection, and seemed to falter for a second in defeat as she flew around to hover in front of James's face.

"Padfoot?" she chirped hopefully, a hint of sadness to her human-like voice.

"He's with my luggage," James told her, and actually felt bad when she flopped to the ground in defeat. She'd been so excited.

Everyone laughed at the little bird as she lay beak-down on the floor, wallowing in her own self pity, that was until Charlotte felt someone's eyes on her and looked around.

She'd expected them to be Sean's, but was surprised to find it was James - gaping at her and blinking continuously.

"Er-James," she started. "What are you doing?"

"Y-Your h-hair!" he stammered. "It's brown! Not red!"

"Well it's closer to Auburn than brown, but yeah," Charlotte shrugged, wrapping a newly coloured reddish-brown curl around her finger. "I dyed it," she explained non-chalantly.

Fred gasped dramatically at her side and fell to his knees. "You killed it!" he cried "Nooo!"

Sean rolled his eyes and James ignored Fred who was rolling around on the floor.

"It's a shame," James sighed. "I liked the red."

Charlotte shrugged it off, not really paying much attention to it. "I thought it was just time for a change. I don't even know where the red came from," she explained. "None of my family are red-heads. Maybe, it came from my dad?"

The boys shifted uncomfortably and Fred sat up, they never liked talking about Charlotte's father, much to her annoyance.

"Third year," James said, changing the conversation. "We can visit Hogsmeade this year," he said in a sing-song voice.

"Yes!" Fred winked. "As long as we solemnly swear to be up to no good."

"Ah," James said and pulled out what looked like a piece of parchment out of his pocket. "But mischief can't be managed without this," he waved it around in front of them. Sean and Charlotte stared at him.

"You got it?" Charlotte squeaked. "You actually got it?!"

"It was easy," James shrugged. "Teddy handed it over quite quickly after what I witnessed between him and Icky Vicky this morning," he smirked.

"Brilliant!" Charlotte cried.

"S'nothing," James smiled. "Just threatened him with Uncle Bill."

They all laughed and the conversation eventually turned from Hogsmeade to other things.

One being Isobel Greengrass.

When Charlotte told them about the man who had helped her, the only one who seemed interested was James.

"Good," he said. "I'm not putting up with her crap this year."

"You said that last year too," Sean said calmly as he turned the page in his book.

James sent him a look and both Charlotte and Fred could feel the tension already starting to build between them. "Yeah, well this time I mean it."

* * *

Amazingly enough, it was even more windy at Hogsmeade Station than it had been at Kings Cross, and when the four friends stepped off of the train they were surrounded by icy gusts of howling wind.

Charlotte's teeth were chattering before her feet even touched the concrete of the platform, and even Tess scrambled down the front of Charlotte's jumper to seek some warmth.

"Merlins balls! It's freezing out here!" Fred gasped, shivering from head to toe and rubbing his arms to warm himself up.

Charlotte nodded, pulling her cloak tighter around herself and subconsciously leaning into James by her side. "I know – can we get going? You know, before we all get Frostbite?"

The boys all chuckled and nodded, and with that they followed the sea of students down the platform towards the edge of the forest.

"Firs' years this way!"

The four friends heard Hagrid's booming voice, and their pace quickened as they hurried down the platform to see him.

"Hagrid!" they greeted as they reached their biggest friend.

"All right there?" he asked them.

"Fantastic, Hagrid," Fred assured him. "Got any new creatures for us?" he asked, his eyes lighting up with excitement. The four of them seemed to be the only ones in the entire school who actually enjoyed Hagrid's lessons.

"Actually," Hagrid smiled from beneath his beard. "I'm not teachin' this year. There's a replacement for me, I reckon yeh'll like him"

"What?!" James cried and his face fell. "Who?! Why aren't you teaching?!"

Hagrid was just about to explain when the first years descended upon and he was forced to give them a look that said, "I'll tell you later" and he took off leading the first years towards the lake.

"Wonder who's replacing him," James mused as he and his friends waved goodbye and carried on to the carriages.

"At least it doesn't sound permanent," Sean remarked.

"I don't care," Fred pouted, as he climbed up into the carriage and flopped into a seat moodily, looking the most annoyed by this new piece of information. "They better be as exciting a teacher as Hagrid."

Charlotte shook her head at him, and when he wrapped his arm around her shoulders she cuddled into him for warmth. "Stop stressing guys," she sighed happily, looking up at the Castle on hill through the canopy of trees. "We're almost home."

And sure enough, the boys followed her line of vision to see the castle glimmering against the inky backdrop of the night sky. The stars sparkled around it, and warm light flooded out of every tall arched window. Excitement began to bubble up inside each of them, and forgetting any previous tension the four had experienced on the train, they all turned to smile at each other.

They were home.

* * *

One carriage ride, a few Dungbombs chucked at the Slytherins and one prank pulled on the unsuspecting First years later, Charlotte and her friends found themselves seated in the Great Hall.

Charlotte breathed in the warm scent of the Great Hall – the Turkey, the Cauldron Cakes, the Pumpkin Juice – and it made her feel all warm and fuzzy. Finally, she was back where the belonged.

Her eyes scanned the Hall, looking to see how the new First Years who'd joined Gryffindor were getting along, and then over at the other House Tables. The Hufflepuffs were chattering away excitedly, the Ravenclaws were already planning their new study schedules and the Slytherins of course were fuming over the next generation Marauders- as they liked to refer themselves as- latest prank.

She continued tucking into her dinner as her blue eyes drifted over to the Teachers Table. She saw that Hagrid was in deep conversation with someone she recognized, and her eyebrows perked up as she realized who it was.

The red-headed man who had helped her on the train.

Excited at seeing him again, she began punching the person nearest her to get their attention - which happened to be Fred - and pointed up at the table.

"Ouch!" Fred cried, rubbing his arm gingerly. "Charlotte, what-"

"That's him!" Charlotte gasped. "That's the guy that helped me at the station!"

Fred's interest peaked and he looked to the teachers table to see who her helper was. Then his eyes seemed to glaze over.

"Oh no," he groaned. "Oh no, oh no, oh no! This is not happening! James, tell me it's a horrible, horrible nightmare!"

James followed his line of vision too and his expression turned to one of horror.

"No!" he moaned. "Our pranking days are over! We're doomed! Good bye, free world!"

"What are you two on about?" Charlotte demanded as Sean stared at them too.

Fred banged his head off the table repeatedly, ignoring the people who were glaring at him.

"Charlotte," James hissed, leaning forward in his seat. "That is our Uncle Charlie!".


	3. Chapter 3

"James!" Sean hissed across the Gryffindor table. "Will you sit still?!"

James, who had been fidgeting non-stop with his spoon and anything else he could get his hands on since he'd found out Charlie would be teaching them, glared at Sean and pushed away his uneaten treacle tart - which Fred eyed with interest.

"I want to know why Hagrid isn't teaching us anymore and why Uncle Charlie is here," James growled, pounding his fist on the table.

Charlotte, who jumped at the sound looked pleadingly to Fred across the table for some help calming James down, but got no such luck – as he was still eyeing James's treacle tart. She rolled her eyes frustratedly at the pair, and in so doing caught sight of something large moving out the corner of her eye.

"Well, only one way to find out," she said, pointing across the hall to Hagrid who was making his way towards the large Oak doors leading out from the Hall.

James, whose head shot up immediately, looked around and upon catching sight of Hagrid, wasted no time in grabbing Fred by the back of his robes and forcing them both up from the table.

"Come on," he ordered, and with that started marching towards the doors.

"I haven't finished my dessert yet!" Fred cried, desperate to return to his food, but didn't get any joy as Charlotte also grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and forced him out of the hall along with James.

Sean took a moment to just shake his head at them, and gave one last sad look to his un-finished food before he too, stood up and followed.

By the time he caught up with them, James was already out the doors and chasing Hagrid through the Entrance Hall – their footsteps echoing off of the stone floor and walls.

"Hagrid!" James called as the four friends finally reached him.

Hagrid, who already had one hand on the giant brass handle of the Castle doors, turned around and beamed at them. "Hullo, yeh lot," he greeted cheerfully. "I was wonderin' when yeh'd come an' see me," he said with a knowing sparkle in his eyes.

"Hagrid," James said, trying to keep his tone calm as Fred attempted to get back into the Hall and finish his dessert. "What's going on? Why aren't you teaching this year?"

From under his big bushy beard, Charlotte saw Hagrid's cheeks turn red.

"An old friend is retiring an' she's goin' on a world trip ter see some unheard of animals an' she asked me ter come with her and Charlie said he would do me a favour an' take over fer a year"

"She?" Charlotte inquired, sharing a look with Sean.

"Yes," Hagrid said. "Olympe – yer Auntie Fleur an' yer parents 'll known her."

The boys looked disgusted, but Charlotte on the other hand went into a fit of giggles – not really helping the boys moods.

"But why Uncle Charlie?" Fred groaned, finally ceasing his attempt to get out of Charlotte's vice-like grip. "Out of all the people, why someone we're related to?"

"Because he was the firs' ter offer, he wants ter get ter know his nieces and nephews," Hagrid said simply. "Yeh should be happy, Fred"

"I suppose," Fred mumbled.

"An' besides, it won' hur' yeh ter have someone ter watch yeh, neither," Hagrid winked.

Charlotte giggled again at the expression on the boys faces, thinking that those were more McGoggles words than they were Hagrid or Charlie's.

"That's true," Sean chuckled. "When are you leaving, Hagrid?"

"Tomorrow," Hagrid smiled.

"Well," James sighed in defeat. "Have fun, and while you're at it say goodbye to our freedom."

Hagrid snorted at that, and the action caused his shoulders to shake as he chuckled. "Yer overractin'," he told them. "Yer'll have fun with yer uncle, yeh won't want me back, yer'll see."

"Doubt it," Fred pouted.

Hagrid just laughed and said goodbye before he walked out the door.

Taking Fred and James's prank ideas with him.

The four stood there for a moment, Sean and Charlotte unable to control themselves as they laughed at the boys who were still pouting and acting like moody five year olds, and Fred and James mourning over the loss of their pranking days.

That was until they heard McGonagall inside the Great Hall begin her closing speech for the night, and the same thought passed through all four of their heads.

"Want to head upstairs before the traffic gets too bad?" Charlotte asked hopefully. She didn't much fancy being shoved around in crowded hallways anymore today.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Sean agreed and with that he and Charlotte started walking down the corridor – thinking that the boys would naturally follow, and Fred did. But not James.

He had just been about to suggest the same thing, and walk her up to the Common Room himself, but when he saw Sean walk off with her – laughing and talking as they went – he got the strangest feeling inside him…It was like a monster he couldn't control. Something that was bubbling up inside of him, twisting his emotions and thoughts, making him focus on Charlotte but even more so on the slick git walking next to her. Seeing the way Sean's arm brushed against Charlottes, how he stole glances of her out the corner of his eyes, how his eyes strayed to places they probably shouldn't – it made the monster want to break loose. He tried to keep a lid on it, to suppress this strange new emotion he was feeling, but doing so caused the lanterns that lined the surrounding walls to shake an-

"Oi! James!"

He snapped out of his sudden rage and seemed to be able to see clearly, and looked down the hall at Charlotte who was smiling and looking at him confusedly.

"Are you coming?" she called to him again.

His face lit up. She wanted him to walk with her! James mentally slapped himself at that one.

'Of course she does you blithering idiot – you're her best friend!' he thought to himself, but even after telling himself that, he still felt immensely proud. So proud infact that the monster inside of him started cheering when he saw the scowl Sean shot him as James walked up and linked arms with her.

In response, James immaturely stuck his tongue out at Sean over the top of Charlotte's head so she couldn't see. Sean seemed shocked for a second before he too linked arms with Charlotte on her other side, and before she knew it she had two dashing escorts up to Gryffindor Tower.

"Come on you two, let's get moving," she chuckled, not realizing that the boys were still shooting each other death glares.

"Sure," they both replied in unison. And again, another death glare war broke out as the three began their ascent up the Grand Staircase.

Unbeknownst to them however, Fred was lagging behind the group, and saw everything that had happened between two of his oldest friends.

And like Charlotte had done earlier – he wondered just how much they both had changed over the Summer.

* * *

The sun peeked out over the tops of the forest, gradually climbing higher into the sky. Its rays painted the castle in a beautiful morning glow, shining through the various arched windows and signalling the start of another day.

Teachers shuffled their papers and stood from behind their desks to begin their descent to the Great Hall, Filch returned to bed – satisfied that nothing untoward had taken place in the middle of the night -, and students stirred sleepily in their beds.

Particularly in Gryffindor Tower, on the seventh floor.

Sean was the first to feel the warmth on his face, and opened his eyes sleepily to stare at the bright room.

"Ughhh," he groaned, diving back under the covers and bringing them up above his head. He was partially a creature of the night. Mornings were not his friend.

James might as well have been a Werewolf too, as he had the same reaction to the bright glare of the sun – stuffing his head under his pillow and muttering things under his breath about how ridiculous it was that they didn't get to have curtains in their dorms.

Connor McLaggen awoke too, groggy and tired. He let out a huge yawn, flicking some of his blonde curly hair out of his dark brown eyes and lifted his head off of the pillow sleepily to see what time it was, but immediately covered his eyes when he opened them to the bright room.

Damn mornings.

"Sean," he called out, his voice heavy with sleep.

He heard a faint grunt coming from underneath the duvet in the bed across from his.

"Time?" he asked.

Connor heard another round of groans as Sean stuck his hand out from underneath his covers, and fumbled around his bedside table looking for his watch. He found it, and when he pulled it under the covers to inspect it, Connor got his answer.

"7:00am," Sean grunted.

James couldn't help but crack a smile. Sean was so not a morning person.

"Ah well, ten more minutes," he yawned, and settled back down into bed, feeling around for his covers. He'd just had the best dream about Charl-

Where the hell were his covers?

His eyes flew open – something he immediately regretted when he had to squint against the light to find his duvet.

He searched the foot of his bed. The floor around it. Even underneath the four poster bed. But no duvet.

"What the-"

"Rise and shine sleepy heads!"

The booming voice was deafening, and James got such a fright he fell backwards out of bed and face planted the ground.

The hard wooden floor was not inviting, and as he picked himself up off of it, his anger bubbled up inside of him.

Whoever had given him a fright had better run. Very fast.

Making a move to grab his wand, James whipped his head around to find who ever had given him that wake-up call – only to have his jaw drop open at the sight before him.

Fred.

Showered and fully dressed in his school uniform.

Bright and bushy eyed.

Holding James's duvet in his hands.

"What kind of black magic fuckery is this?!"

Fred tutted at James's language and tossed his covers over to him. "Good morning to you too," he smirked, as he practically skipped over to Sean's bed.

"'Good morning' my arse. What are you playing at Fred?" James grumbled as he kicked his duvet aside – not in the mood for going back to bed anymore – and staggered over to his trunk to pull out his uniform for the day.

"What ever happened to seizing the day?" Fred replied innocently, eying the sleeping lump underneath the red velvet covers. How was he going to wake Sean up without being ripped to shreds?

"You're lucky I don't seize your neck and throttle you!" James called over his shoulder from the foot of his bed. Where was his ruddy tie?

Fred couldn't help but grin. Oh this was going to be an interesting! If he could only get Sean up. He frowned, wondering how to do it, when a lightbulb went off in his head.

"Wakey wakey!" he chirped, climbing onto the bed and jumping around on the springy mattress.

"ARGH!" Sean cried as he was bounced around his bed. "What is going on?!" He gripped his headboard for support and looked around, his eyes filled with sleep, and like James his jaw dropped open when he saw Fred.

Fred was always the last one awake out of the lot of them!

"Are you high?!" he snarled up at Fred, who stopped bouncing for a moment to grin down at him.

"Yes! High on excitement! It's today! It's today! It's today!" Fred cheered, and hopped off the bed to run over to Connors.

"James!" Sean yelled – forgetting the events from the night before for a brief moment - and looking around for his friend. "JAMES!" he shouted again when he didn't get an answer.

There was a pause before they all heard a very annoyed James Potter stick his head out from underneath his bed in an attempt to find his tie. "What now?!"

"What's this crackpot on about?! What's today?" Sean asked, throwing his legs over the side of the bed and placing his head in his hands. He rubbed his eyes sleepily before running a hand through his tangled blonde hair.

"Fred's funeral?" James drawled.

Fred stopped walking over to Connor's bed and turned around to gape at Sean. "Don't tell me you don't remember what today is!"

Sean blinked at him, wracking his brains to think of what could be so important. "No?"

"By God man! Where's your sense of Marauderness?!"

"Probably still in bed. Which is where I'm going," Sean grumbled, lying back down and bringing his covers back over his head.

Fred shook his head at his friends on either side of him. With Connor still fast asleep and Sean refusing to get up, he wondered if he was really the only person who remembered what today was.

"You know if you don't wake up I'm going to have to make you, we have far too much to do before breakfast then to lie around in bed."

Sean shook his head under the covers. Fred was beginning to sound like McGonagall! "Make me," he challenged.

There was a moment of silence before, all of a sudden, a sing-song voice sounded right by his ear.

"I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves! Everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves! I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves and this is how it goes: I know a song that gets on everybody's n-"

"FINE! FINE! I'm UP!" Sean bellowed, throwing his covers aside and trudging over the bottom of his bed to rummage through his trunk for a shirt to wear.

"Thought that would get you up," Fred smirked and went over to Connors bed. He pulled out a foghorn from his back pocket and held it right over Connors sleeping head. The sound that erupted from it could have woken the dead, and Connor woke up screaming.

"What? What's going on?!" he cried, jumping out of bed still half asleep and looking around in a daze.

"Nothing! Apart from the fact that you're all finally up!" Fred smiled and walked over to his bed to kneel down and begin rummaging underneath it.

"If people were meant to pop out of bed like that we'd all sleep in bloody toasters," Sean groaned.

"Hmmm maybe that can be arranged," Fred pondered. Connor gave him a look as if asking him if he was being serious. When he realized he was, he gave Fred the dirtiest look. "Don't even think about it," and with that he followed the other boys examples by going to his trunk and pulling out his school uniform.

"What's so special about today anyway?" James asked as Fred sauntered over to his bed and pulled out a large trunk from underneath it.

Fred blinked at him. "Did you seriously forget?" he asked incredulously, frowning at how both James and Sean were taking their time getting their clothes together.

James just looked at him cluelessly. "This morning is the first time we pull a proper prank on the Slytherins! At breakfast! It's a Marauder tradition!" he cried.

Both James and Sean turned to gape at him. "You woke us up at 7:00 for THAT?! I need my sleep dammit!" Sean complained.

"Yeah, can't we just give the Slytherins hell some other time?" James moaned, considering just crawling back into bed. The four boys had stayed up way too late last night with Charlotte in the Common Room. James was practically dead on his feet.

Fred pretended to consider that suggestion as he opened his trunk filled with stacks of pieces of parchment - there were pieces attached to the bottom of the lid, showing intricate diagrams of how their pranks would be executed, times, places, lists of people, etc. – before smirking.

"Well, you COULD sleep in," he started off. "However I think you ought to know, a particularly pretty brunette woke up 10 minutes ago and is already on her way down to the hall for breakfast to watch the show."

James and Sean dropped the pile of clothes in their hands. "Charlotte's already up?!" Sean gasped, feeling the sudden urge to hurriedly get dressed and run to her side.

"Doesn't she always wake up early for your prank?" Connor asked as he stood up from his trunk – clothes in hand – and started walking towards the bathroom door.

Realizing that Connor was right, and not allowing either one to be there before the other, James and Sean shot each other the same dirty look and at the same time began sprinting towards the bathroom door to get changed – shoving Connor out of the way.

After what most people would consider to be a bit too much punching and kicking for 7:10 in the morning, James triumphantly slammed the door in Sean's face and laughed wickedly from within the bathroom.

"Bastard," Sean fumed under his breath, and forgot all about fixing his hair and brushing his teeth for the moment as he started stripping off his pyjamas and hurriedly pulling on his uniform.

"Thought that would catch both of your interests," Fred mused from his trunk as he pulled out the first piece of parchment, showing how exactly they'd execute their prank against the Slytherins.

"Oh shut up," both Sean and James (from inside the bathroom) yelled at him.

Connor blinked at the boys in the room and then at the door in front of him. "Am I missing something?" he asked confusedly.

* * *

Charlotte sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, bored out of her skull as Tess flitted up and down the table eyeing up all the pieces of toast and eggs.

Had the boys forgotten that their first prank against Slytherin was this morning?

Just as that thought crossed her mind – and Charlotte failed to stifle a yawn – the doors burst open and in came James and Sean. Shoving each other out of the way as they scrambled over to the only two remaining seats on either side of Charlotte.

"About bloody time," she remarked as James sunk into the seat on her right.

"Yeah sorry, got held up," he gasped in-between pants for breath.

"Held up," Sean agreed, panting also as he finally reached the pair and made an attempt to get the seat on Charlotte's left. Just as Connor showed up and took it instead. He knew it was bad, but the monster inside James couldn't help but do a happy dance as Sean was forced to trudge around the table to take the seat across from them.

Sean saw him smirking and glared at him in reply.

Charlotte, who had been chatting to Connor at the time was completely oblivious to what was going on between two of her oldest friends – although she did feel a strange tension in the air – and so she dove into conversation with them to try and ease it a bit.

"So where's Fred?" she asked casually, taking a bite of her toast.

"Fred," Tess chirped, coming to sit by Charlotte's goblet of Pumpkin Juice and look up at the three friends.

"Oh he's in the kitchens, said it's something to do with the prank," Sean shrugged, absent mindedly stroking Tess's head.

Charlotte frowned at him. "What's up with you? You're usually like a kid on Christmas morning at the first breakfast of the year! Cheer up," she encouraged, to which her frown was mirrored in Sean.

"I've got bigger things on my mind," he said with a pointed look to James. Was it just Sean being paranoid or were James and Charlotte sitting closer together than usual?

"Fred's in the kitchens. Something to do with the Slytherin's prank," James smiled cheekily, causing Charlotte to giggle.

"That'll be the last thing they'll expect!" she laughed.

"The last thing who'll expect Miss Williams?" came a stern voice from behind them, and the three turned to find McGoggles herself standing with a bunch of scrolls in hand. Her hair was pulled back into its usual tight bun and her glasses perched neatly on the bridge of her nose.

"We were just talking about what to get you for your birthday this year McGoggl- I mean Professor McGonagall," Sean smiled innocently.

"Yes, and we were just saying it's going to be so lovely that you won't even be expecting it," James added.

"Oh I'm sure," McGonagall quipped. "Because if it was anything like the cat toys or the balls of yarn I've received from you for the last two years, I definitely won't be expecting anything 'nice'," she frowned, to which Charlotte had to pretend she was coughing behind James's shoulder to cover up the fact she was laughing so much. McGonagall gave them all one last scrutinizing look before handing the four of them some of the scrolls she was holding. "New timetables," she said curtly. "And don't be taking any detours past the Slytherin Common Room or by any of the secret passages on your way to classes this year please," she said knowingly, eyeing each one of them before walking down the aisle of tables.

The three friends burst out laughing, and for a moment Charlotte felt the tension completely dissipate between her two friends before she felt James nudge her playfully, and noticed Sean tense across the table.

She didn't have a clue what was going on between them, but doing anything with either one of them seemed to bug the other one, so Charlotte decided to just quickly scan her timetable instead. She grinned happily.

"Care of Magical Creatures is a double," she squealed excitedly. "Just before lunch!"

Sean, James, and even Connor rolled their eyes.

Charlotte and her bloody animals. She was obsessed and though they were used to it, it did get tiring.

Thankfully though, before she could start one of her lectures about how they should also appreciate Care of Magical Creatures – and the many reasons she'd thought of as to why – Fred sauntered into the Great Hall. Happily and as smugly as could be, and chose to take the seat by Sean across from James.

"Morning my little Marauders," he grinned at them as he helped himself to about ten pieces of bacon and several helpings of scrambled egg and toast.

He felt three intent pairs of eyes on him and lifted his head to find his friends looking at him. "What?" he asked innocently.

"Well?" Charlotte prompted, her eyes darting between the half-empty Slytherin table and Fred. "What did you do for the prank?" she asked eagerly.

"Oh no, that's top secret information my dear," he winked at her.

"'Top Secret' my arse!" James insisted.

"My arse," Tess nodded, and hopped over to peck irritably at Fred's hands.

"Ouch!" he pouted, rubbing at his hands. "Why do you want to know so badly?"

"So we know what to look out for?" Sean stated obviously.

Fred snorted into his pumpkin juice and placed his goblet down to wipe at his face. "Oh trust me my friend, you're gonna know what to look out for," he assured him.

"Oh stop with the secrecy Sherlock and just tell us the bloody pr-"

"Shhhhhhhhh! The Slytherins are coming!" Charlotte announced, cutting Sean off completely as she watched the sea of green walk anxiously over to their table.

She noted that all of them were eyeing it suspiciously. What had the little bastard done this year? A lot of them checked under the table for something hidden, while other felt the seats for some invisible object or looked above them for anything that might fall. But, satisfied that there wasn't anything – that they could see – they all sat down and began helping themselves greedily to the copious amounts of food and drink.

"Well?" Charlotte asked again impatiently.

"Wait for it," Fred cautioned. "Wait for i-"

A bone-trembling scream filled the Great Hall.

All eyes turned towards the Slytherin table, and Charlotte was graced with the beautiful sight of seeing Isobel sprout fuzzy ears, a long snout, and her entire face morph into that of a cows. She screamed and shrieked, crying over how ugly she looked, and honestly, it was one of the best things Charlotte had ever seen.

"Brilliant," she grinned, as the entire hall broke out into fits of laughter as the rest of the Slytherins morphed into the ugliest animals imaginable.

"W-What did you do?!" James cried inbetween fits of laughter.

"Slipped some potion into the Pumpkin Juice!" Fred laughed back. "Whatever animal they turn into reflects their personality!"

Charlotte, James and Sean watched as one by one, the Slytherins morphed into different animals. Charlotte could have sworn she saw a few pigs, snakes and crows in the crowd of panicking students, but she didn't pay much notice to them. All she could focus on was Isobel.

"Well the potion certainly got it right with that one didn't it?!" she cried inbetween loud guffaws.

The laughter continued for another five minutes as teachers hurried over to calm the students down, all but one – McGonagall. Her eyes darted around the Hall, searching for the Marauders, and when she found them all four looked the very definition of 'panic' and Tess was the first one to start running – or in her case flying at 500mph – towards the door. McGonagall tried to call the four of them back, shouting and yelling at the top of her lungs, but it was no use. Her voice could hardly be heard over the sound of all of the laughing as the Marauders made their Great Escape. Having successfully pulled off their first great prank of the year.

* * *

The wind howled around them and sounded like screaming to their ears as the four Marauders huddled together on their way out of the castle.

After collapsing into a secret alcove near the Entrance Hall to laugh and celebrate their prank, Charlotte had quickly realized that her new favourite lesson was about to begin and had pestered the three boys to move it. However they still joked about it.

"How fitting that our first class should be Care of Magical Creatures," Fred chuckled, remembering the look on that bastard Dmitri Flint's face when he phased into a rat.

"How fitting indeed, considering that will probably be the last prank we ever pull with Uncle Charlie being around," James pouted as he pulled his cloak tighter around himself as they walked across the grass. The sun was shining, but it was deceptively and unusually cold for September. "How long is this weather going to last?" he complained. "It's bloody colder than yesterday!"

"Quit your whinging, Jamsie," Charlotte said, skipping ahead of the group and then walking backwards in front of them on their way to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

"You're in an awfully good mood," Sean observed with a smile, watching how the wind tousled her curls.

"I'm just glad to be back!" she announced, and then took off running down the steep hill to the Lake. Before she knew it, all three boys were chasing after her and it had turned into a race to reach the paddock by the forest first.

* * *

Unsurprisingly, Charlotte and the boys were one of the first group to turn up for Care of Magical Creatures, the Slytherins naturally lagging behind and sending the four dirty looks as they sunk down into the wooden chairs Charlie had arranged around the paddock outside Hagrid's old house.

Charlotte would have preferred to have gotten there earlier, however getting the boys there hadn't been the easiest thing to do. Both Charlotte and Sean, had had to physically drag Fred and James to the edge of the forest where Charlie was standing on the stairs outside the little round house.

"Come along, don't be shy, there are plenty of seats in the front! You'll all want to get a good look at what we're studying today, it's not going to be your usual kind of lesson," he called out as students fought each other for the last seat at the back.

Charlotte of course strolled to the front row of chairs, closest to Charlie and the house and when she didn't hear the boys join her, turned back around in her seat and beckoned for them to join.

"Morning Professor," James smirked and Charlie tried to fight back a laugh.

"Good morning, Mr Potter," he said in the same formal tone James had used.

"Is it OK if Tess joins the class Mr. Weasley?" Charlotte grinned as the Jobberknoll flew around her ear.

"The more the merrier," Charlie said. "Tess you have to take your OWL's with us in two years time," Fred informed Tess who stared at him. They all laughed and then Charlie turned to Charlotte with a serious expression. "Just do me a favour, Miss er-?"

"Williams," Charlotte said quickly. "Charlotte Williams."

Charlie froze for a minute and he seemed to be thinking something over before he shook his head. "Miss Williams," he said. "Just keep Tess away from what's in that house."

"Uh-oh," Tess chirped.

"Uh-oh is right, Tess," Charlie nodded at the bird. "But you just stay with your friend Charlotte here and you'll be fine. She'll keep you safe."

"Safe," Tess repeated and flew into the pockets of Charlotte's robes, poking her little head out just enough so that she could "participate" in the classes activities too.

"Alright,'" Charlie began, wringing his hands together in a kind of nervous excitement as he stood in front of Hagrid's old hut, staring down at all the students gathered around, "I got you all a special surprise to mark the beginning of our first class together!"

The Gryffindor and Slytherin third years all exchanged slightly apprehensive looks before sitting down with reluctance. It was the first period of the day, Care of Magical Creatures, and when Charlie had announced that this wouldn't be any usual lesson, nearly everyone had taken a small step back. Was this guy going to be as nutty as Hagrid was?

James frowned as the old, rickety chair he sat down in wobbled in protest; one of the legs obviously too short. "See what I mean? This class is doomed to be awful from the get-go!" he muttered to Charlotte under his breath.

"Oh stop your whinging, you're like a nagging old lady," she teased him.

"It had better not be anymore of those Skrewt things," Fred said with distaste, remembering his last encounter with one of them.

Charlotte bit the corner of her lip as she watched Charlie, she'd just been thinking along the same lines. What did he have this time? She could only pray that it wasn't anything too dangerous … or illegal. Hagrid had a habit of that.

Charlie, who had heard Fred's little remark beamed at them all. "Nah, it's even better."

Sean and Charlotte both raised their eyebrows, exchanging an overwhelmed look before they turned back to Charlie.

"Well … what is it?" James asked finally, not completely confident he wanted to hear the answer.

Charlie, who had just opened his mouth to reply when there was a loud 'thud' from within his new hut, and the entire structure shook in protest.

Charlotte widened her eyes, pressing her back into her chair. She did adore Care of Magical Creatures, but it wasn't often you saw a sturdy hut like that quake like a leaf.

"Now class, today for our first lesson we'll be learning about Dragons!"

The entire class was on their feet in the blink of an eye, most of them ducked down behind the chairs Charlie had set out.

"You're bloody joking!" Dmitri Flint cried incredulously, standing behind his chair as though he were on springs, ready to run away like a bat out of hell if anything were to come barrelling out of the hut.

"Y-You're serious?" Eloise Greengrass – Isobel's younger yet no less annoying sister - asked.

"Dead serious," Charlie assured them.

"You brought a bloody dragon?!" another one of Elosie's friends, Rebekah Corley cried. "Are you insane?!"

"Yes," Fred and James squeaked in unison, causing Charlie to glare at them.

"You're telling me there's a … a dragon in there?" James asked with a dropped jaw, gesturing towards the building.

The entire class began to slowly back up, eyeing the hut warily, and Fred licked his lips a bit. "Er …Uncle Charlie … " he began gently, minding the almost hurt expression on Charlie's face. "You don't … really … have a … a dragon in there … Right?"

"It's not full grown! " Charlie chuckled, finding it funny how everyone was on edge and ready to run for the hills.

There was a roar that sounded almost like a lion, and nearly all the girls (along with some of the boys) screamed out loud, jogging backwards – all except Charlotte, and Tess buried herself deeper into her owner's pocket.

"Charlotte!" Fred hissed, about five rows back from his friend. "There's a dragon in that hut! Get back!" But Charlotte didn't -if anything she moved closer- she was interested to see it. She had always been fascinated by dragons.

"Ah get back in your seats, c'mon now - " Charlie said with a wave of his hand as he turned back to the hut. "Come on out Kitten!

"Kitten … ?" James repeated, frowning in confusion as he slowly made his way back to his seat.

Sure enough, the door of the hut swung open at that moment (everyone leaped back again) and Charlotte felt Tess shivering in her pocket. As the rest of the class held their breaths, Charlotte burst out laughing. It was possible the smallest, if not the cutest dragon she had -not that she'd seen many- ever laid eyes on that hurried out to stand at Charlie's heels.

"Something funny, Miss Williams?" Charlie asked, his expression one of amusement.

"It's so cute!" Charlotte exclaimed. Everyone gaped at her.

"You're as mental as he is!" Fred cried, pointing at his uncle. The dragon was only a baby -Charlotte could tell- its spiny wings were enormous compared to its little body. It was wrinkly and small and Charlotte just wanted to hug it.

"I quite agree with you there Miss Williams," Charlie smiled, before clearing his throat before speaking to everyone else. "Sorry about that!" Charlie said as he moved to pet Kitten, nodding back towards the hut. "Kitten doesn't like being in a small space for too long," he explained, nodding down to the dragon who was craning its neck in all kinds of directions, trying to take in as much of the view as it could.

Charlotte didn't seem to be listening though, and she dropped out of her chair and onto her knees in front of the little dragon.

"Wow … " she breathed, staring at the dragon as if it were the most magnificent thing she'd ever seen in her entire life. "Look at you!" The dragon seemed to sneeze then, and a puff of scarlet flame flickered out of its nostrils. Covering her mouth with one hand, Charlotte made a noise of endearment.

Widening his eyes a bit, Sean sat down in his seat with a dropped jaw. This lesson was beginning to look rather promising.

Trying not to look too interested, Eloise, Dmitri and the rest of the Slytherins sat back down in their chairs, and only once he had everyone's attention did Charlie choose that moment to formally introduce himself.

"Hello everyone," Charlie began with a broad grin as he looked around the class. "My name is Charlie Weasley, and I'll be your new Care of Magical Creatures teacher!"

Thinking she was being clever; Eloise gave him a cruel smirk. "You're related to Fred then?"

"No," Charlie shook his head. "We just so happen to have the same hair and last name. Now, this, if you all don't know yet, is Kitten," he began, nodding down to the dragon, who was now burying its' nose into the hard ground. He seemed completely un-fazed by Eloise, and Charlotte chuckled quietly as she glanced over her shoulder at the girl, who now wore a rather sour expression on her face.

"You might find 'Kitten' an odd name for a dragon, but … well, she acts like one." Crouching down beside the dragon, Charlie gave it a pat on the side. "Can anyone tell me what breed of dragon Kitten is?"

"It's a Norwegian Ridgeback," Charlotte stated simply.

Charlie looked surprised that someone actually knew what it was and he smiled with a nod. "That she is, and how did you know?"

"Her black ridges along her back, the browner texture in her scales, and her less hostile attitude," Charlotte cooed as she continued to pet the dragon.

Nodding once, Charlie ran his hand over the dragon's snout. "Very good. This particular Norwegian Ridgeback is known mostly for being descended from the one which Harry Potter cared for a brief period of time," Charlie said with a smile, running a finger along the iridescent, pearly scales that coated Kitten's side.

The class looked interested then and James stared around smugly. "My dad," he mouthed proudly.

"Are they often able to be tamed like that?" Sean asked, tilting his head to one side as he observed the dragon with interest.

Charlie shook his head. "No, it is never, ever, a good idea to keep a dragon as a pet. Can anyone tell me why?"

"They can't be domesticated," Charlotte said immediately, before anyone could answer. "Especially not the females or nesting mothers."

"Excellent," Charlie praised "five points to Gryffindor. Can anyone tell me why the females are harder to handle?"

Again Charlotte spoke before anyone else. "They're a lot more vicious than the males," she said. "And the nesting mothers will get much more violent if they think their eggs are in danger".

"Like humans too!" Fred cried. All the girls glared at him but the boys chuckled.

"True," Charlie winked "take five more points, Miss Williams".

Charlotte, not really noticing she'd been giving another five house points as she was too focused on the creature in front of her stared at it in awe. "She's beautiful," she complimented, to which Kitten turned to her and nuzzled her own nose against Charlotte's. "Was she born in the park where you worked in Romania?"

"Actually no, Kitten's mother escaped the park sometime before she had her babies, and Kitten was found abandoned in Australia, we still don't know what happened to her mother. But Kitten here was too weak to make the trip back." Gently, Charlie lifted one of the dragon's wings, stretching it out so they could all see how thin it was. "Her wings are very frail, and though she is very healthy, she'll never be able to fly."

The Gryffindor girls 'aww'ed simultaneously, and even most of the Slytherin girls – including Eloise and her cronies - had difficulty not looking sympathetic.

"Anyhow, a wizard found her and decided to keep her for a bit. Well, inevitably, she began to grow, and he just didn't have the energy to keep up with her, and that's when we were notified." Giving Kitten a pat on the head, he smirked as she rested her chin on his knee, "She was so used to human company by that point that we figured it was too late to attempt mixing her in with the other dragons. That's why her name's Kitten. Like I said, she acts more like one than a dragon."

As Kitten lied down, Charlie straightened back up. "So have you studied Dragons before class? Tell me what you know about them."

Eloise, still obviously vexed about Charlie's earlier response to her question, gave him a sneer. "Only that they like to kill things."

"Oh right, so you basically know nothing then," Charlie responded, and this time Charlotte caught an almost unnoticeable hint of anger in his tone.

Smirking, Fred and James shot Eloise a look before they turned back to Charlie.

"A dragon will never kill unless provoked. The females are often more violent than males, generally because they have eggs or young to protect – as Charlotte stated before. There is a very old English myth that a dragon will only eat a human if they make direct eye contact with them. This is completely untrue; of course, for most dragon's don't prefer the taste of humans at all."

"Oh, how very considerate," Eloise muttered under her breath, looking around as though Charlie were boring her.

"Though for some I'm certain they'd make an exception," Charlie said with a smile.

Chuckling, Charlotte sat back in her seat, watching the little puffs of scarlet smoke that drifted from the dragon's little nostrils as it snored.

"Now," Charlie continued. "Let us continue our lesson. It is thought that-"

* * *

By the end of their first lesson, Charlotte had earned more points than Fred had ever lost in a week and she found Charlie to be a very engaging teacher.

When the bell signalled for the rest of their lesson, Charlie clapped his hands together and put the dragon back into the house.

"Thank you for paying attention everyone, for the most part at least," he added under his breath as he eyed Eloise. "You are all dismissed! See you next lesson!"

Charlotte grinned at him and gazed longingly at the hut before picking up her book bag and following after the boys. Of course they were already half way up the hill back towards the castle.

"Miss Williams," Charlie called after her.

"Yes Professor?" she asked kindly, turning back to look at her.

"Oh please, call me Charlie – I feel as if I practically know you anyway. The boys never stops talking about you whenever I'm home at Christmas. Especially James," he chuckled.

Charlotte wasn't sure why she blushed at the mention of James, but she did, and both Tess and Charlie noticed it. "Th-Thank you for the lesson, it was brilliant," she said sincerely.

"Bloody brilliant," Tess added.

Both Charlotte and Charlie laughed at that one. "I'm glad you enjoyed it," he smiled. "I noticed that you seemed to appreciate the dragon more than anyone else in the class, and for that, I'm inviting you to come back later on and visit her before she's sent back to Romania."

Charlotte's jaw may have dropped off the ground, but she hardly noticed. "Are you serious?" she gaped.

"Very."

"Th-That would be amazing! Excellent! Thank you!" she gushed, before she hit a snag in her thought process. "But how am I going get out after dinner?" she pouted.

Charlie shook his head as he chuckled. "James's map of course."

Her eyes bulged. "W-W-What d-do you m-mean?" she stuttered. He knew about their map?!

"Calm down," he laughed. "Of course I know about the map, it's practically famous in our family. I've heard about all the stories from James's dad," he smirked.

"Oh," Charlotte said stupidly. "Well, in that case, sure. Sure! I can be here after dinner!"

Charlie grinned at her. "Then I look forward to seeing you Miss Williams," he told her, and the pair shook hands before parting, and Charlotte hurried up the hill towards the boys.

"What was all that about?" Sean asked casually as he laid back on the hill with his arms behind his head.

"Yeah, what was all that chit-chat going on down there? My stomachs rumbling," James pouted as he rubbed his belly. Oh, how he wanted to get to lunch.

"What's new?" Charlotte joked, and nudged him playfully in the arm as the four walked back up towards the castle. "Nothing really, just talking about how I'm going to use the Marauders Map to sneak out after dinner and visit the dragon," she said in a nonchalant voice.

The three nodded their heads, not really paying attention to what she'd said for focusing too much on food.

"Oh right, that's cool then that you're going to use my ma- WAIT WHAT?!"


	4. Chapter 4

"Have you read this?" demanded James, as he flung that evenings edition of the Daily Prophet down in front of Fred.

"And good evening to you too," he quipped, smirking up at his cousin over the top of his Quidditch Magazine before settling back down into the plush armchair by the crackling fire and turning his attention back to the-

"OI! James, give it back," he whined as he jumped up to try and grab the magazine back out of James's outstretched hands.

"Freddie, I hate to break it to you, but what's going on out in the real world is a LOT more important than what's going on with your favourite player this week," James replied with a pointed look. He continued to hold the glossy mag out of Fred's reach - oh the perks of being taller than your best friend - and pointed down at the newspaper on the armrest of the chair.

The look on Fred's face was none short of unamused.

"Says you, Mr. 'Don't-bother-me-I'm-reading-Witch-Weekley's-Top-100-list-of-hottest-Witches," he huffed, running his fingers through his tangled red hair frustratedly.

After Care of Magical Creatures that morning, he'd had a pretty crap day, and all he'd wanted was to curl up next to the fire with his magazine before having to go to detention with McGoggles!

"James, give me my magazine back and I won't feel the need to- Oh Merlin of Agrippa!" he gasped, catching sight of the headline on the front of the newspaper.

The words: _'Shrieking Shack – Shrieking no longer'_ glared up at him from the tabloid, along with an accompanying picture of the old dilapidated house.

Without a second word, Fred snatched up at the paper and began skim reading through the article, muttering under his breath as he did so.

"_It was only late last week that surveyors from the Ministry of Magic toured one of the UK's most notable of Wizarding Landmarks – far from satisfied with their findings. Although it is a well known fact that the house has fallen into disrepair over the last century – something which appears to be its trademark feature - it appears to be a double edged sword. With its splintered floorboards, leaking roof and crumbling walls, the house is quickly falling to pieces. Ministry officials say that unless immediate action is taken to preserve it, then Britain could lose one of its most iconic Wizarding monuments. As such the building has been_- WHAT?!"

Fred's eyes just about popped out of their sockets as he gapped at the next words, and several students at surrounding tables and couches jumped from his outburst.

"_The building has been closed for repairs until such time as it has been restored to its full glory_?! Glory?! What glory?!"

James flopped into a nearby chair and ran his hand through his dark hair frustratedly. "I know, it's ridiculous! I mean the place is a shithole!"

"Hey now," Fred said defensively. "It may be a shithole but it's OUR shithole. It's been our shithole for the last three years and it will continue to be our shithole until we're done- well- doing shit and stuff in it."

James stared at his cousin blankly. "You know even from you I was expecting better than that."

"Hey, my brain isn't required to function past 6th period. If you want 'smart Fred' come back tomorrow between 12 and 1pm."

"So basically during lunch," James said simply.

"Naturally – it's when my brain is at its optimum smartness level!"

James blinked at him. "So you're telling me your brain was at optimum smartness level today at lunch when you asked us why dogs can't look up?"

"What's wrong with that?"

"Because they bloody can!"

Fred's bewildered smile widened into the biggest grin and he shook a single finger in front of James's face. "Ah ah ah," he corrected in a sing-song voice. "Not according to 'Shaun of the Dead' they don't. And that movie is basically a cult classic. So everything it says in it should be worshipped and seen as fact."

James groaned and simply shook his head. "So basically, what ever a movie says you take as fact. That explains so much."

Fred raised his hands in surrender. "Hey, I can't help it if the space inside my head enjoys cobwebs and dust more than actual knowledge."

"And how are you supposed to help us find a new clubhouse off of cobwebs and dust," James inquired as he turned their attention back to the newspaper in Freds lap.

Fred frowned as he looked down at it, his good-natured mood suddenly fizzling out.

"Good point," he said, looking worried about it and gnawing on the inside of his cheek before his shoulders relaxed and he lifted his head to smile up at James. "I guess I'll just leave it to you guys to figure out," he said simply and settled back into the comfort of his armchair and propped his feet back up on the coffee table to read his magazine.

James gaped at him. "You what?!"

"I said I'd leave it to you guys," Fred replied calmly from behind his magazine.

"Again, I repeat: WHAT?!"

Fred lowered his magazine slightly to peer over the top of it, his brown eyes sparkling amusedly. "Aren't you lot always criticizing my intelligence levels?"

"Yes but-"

"And aren't you always boasting about how superior your mental capacity is compared to mine?"

"Well yes but-"

"Then you don't need me to come up with another a suggestion for another clubhouse do you? Meaning I can sit here and read my little Quidditch heart out," he explained perkily.

James gave him a blank look for a minute before replying. "I think that may be the most logical argument you've ever presented in your whole life," he stated in bewilderment.

Fred smirked from behind his magazine. "I have my moments," he said in a faraway voice, too distracted by the article he was reading to really pay attention.

"More like 'moment'," James muttered under his breath.

Fred narrowed his eyes at his cousin over the top of his magazine. "What was that?"

"Nothing! Nothing at all! Just wondering where Charlotte is," James smiled innocently, to which Fred simply shrugged and covered his face from view again with his magazine.

"Last I heard she was heading off to the library," he said distractedly. Where was that article he was reading just a minute ago?

James sat up straighter in his seat at that. He'd completely forgotten they even had a library at Hogwarts. "What's she doing there?"

James watched as Fred shrugged again. "Working with Sean or something like that. I think they're doing that Herbology essay Neville gave us today. Why, wanting to do your casual stalking again?"

Silence. Where was his comeback?

"James," he prompted. "I said want to do your bit of casual stalking again, are we?" he chuckled.

No answer. Still no comeback.

"James wha-" he lowered the magazine to face James, only to find that the armchair next to him by the fire was completely empty.

As was the couch.

In fact he was nowhere to be seen, and Fred turned just in time to catch a glimpse of James bombing it down the corridor outside before the portrait hole closed with a soft 'thud'.

"Oh bloody hell," Fred groaned as he sat up straighter and pushed himself out of his chair and threw his magazine down.

He'd completely forgotten about this weird thing between James and Sean.

Oh why oh why hadn't he ditched the cobwebs and dust earlier like James said?

"OI JAMES! WAIT UP!"

* * *

"…So you see, Muggle Fairy Tales really pay a huge part in the whole misconception about Magic Beans. They don't just grow bean stalks, but whatever the owner wants – just so long as they're planted in the right kind of soil. Put that in your conclusion and sum up your other points and you're done!" Sean said brightly, looking up from the mind map he'd drawn for their Herbology Essay to find that Charlotte was staring at the big round clock that hung from the roof in the centre of the library.

Sean frowned at her and waved a hand in her face.

"Earth to Charlotte!" he sang.

"W-What?" she blinked confusedly, forgetting why she was here for a second as she took in the sight of the piles of books scattered around the table top in front of them, and her perturbed best friend by her side.

"You weren't listening again," he frowned.

They'd been tucked away in the library for two hours now writing this essay, and although Sean had thought that this particular table was a good place to work, Charlotte's lack of concentration said otherwise. It was a big round table, surrounded on three sides by rows of Herbology aisles and behind them the private study rooms lined the wall. Through the gaps in the shelves to the left they could see the big tall doors to the library – but no one had been coming or going for a good thirty minutes. So Charlotte must have had something else on her mind to distract her.

"I'm sorry Sean," she sighed as she slumped backwards in her chair. "I'm just so excited for my meeting with Mr. Weasley that tutoring is the last thing on my mind right now!"

Sean groaned as he hit his head off the desk. "Char, this essay is due tomorrow."

"I know, I know!" she said defensively, before the biggest grin spread across her face and she started jumping around in her chair. "I'm just so excited I can't think about anything else but seeing Kitten again," she admitted.

Sean just gave her a serious look. "You know you're going to get another 'Troll' mark if you don't put in those points right?"

"What points?" she asked confusedly.

"The points I just spent over twenty minutes explaining to you?" he said, holding up the mind map in front of her.

Her shoulders slumped at the sight of the diagram and she felt a sinking kind of feeling in the pit of her stomach. "I'm messing this up aren't I?"

"If you class 'messing this up' as not concentrating, failing to complete assignments and not wanting to study then I guess you are," he pretended to muse.

Now it was her turn to beat her head off of the table. "Ugh I'm sorry Sean, but I just can't bring myself to concentrate tonight," she pouted. "I'm no good at Herbology at the best of times, but when I'm excited AND distracted I'm downright rubbish at it!"

Despite himself Sean found himself shaking his head as he gathered up the papers in front of him. "Don't worry about it," he shrugged. "That's why we do these tutoring sessions anyway, so you can get better," he explained with a small smile.

Charlotte thought it was sweet how he was trying to make her feel better about her dismal Herbology skills, but the truth was she still felt bad about it. "But I'm completely wasting your time," she said in a small voice.

Sean stopped what he was doing then and turned to look at her. He could hear the guilt in her voice, and he wanted nothing more than to make her feel better.

"Hey, hey look at me," he said gently as he tilted her head up to look at him. His eyes bore into hers so intently that she was too captivated to look away. "You are not a waste of my time, OK? You could never be that to me. If anything, you're the very best way I could hope to spend my time. I love being around you. You're never a waste to me alright?"

Charlotte felt the heat rush to her cheeks, and although she usually got embarrassed about people complimenting her, for some reason her heart gave a little leap at his words. And she realized that was possibly the sweetest thing anyone had said to her.

"Thank you," she said in a small voice without even realizing it. Only causing her to blush more.

"Anytime," he smiled.

The silence set in then, and both of them became hyperaware of the fact that they were now holding hands.

Why were they holding hands?!

Almost as if both of them had read the others mind, they retracted their hands almost at lightning speed and Sean pushed back his chair and gathered up his things.

"I'm just going to go and return these books," he explained awkwardly as he slung his bookbag over his shoulder and began backing away. "You should get to Charlie's."

"Yeah, yeah I'll just be going…this way," Charlotte muttered distractedly and with that they both went in separate directions – Charlotte to the left and Sean to the right.

Both of them wondering what the heck had just passed between them.

* * *

Charlotte didn't really pay attention to anything in particular on her way out of the library, save for the tingling on her skin where Sean had held her hand and the strange way her head was spinning.

She barged right past Madame Pince, the snooty old librarian – earning a tut and a scolding for her behaviour – but Charlotte didn't stick around to hear it. Or to see the odd looks she was getting from nearby students.

Not stopping once, she hurriedly made her exit through the great Oak library doors and once outside, crossed the wide corridor to collapse on the stone window ledge.

The cool breeze that drifted through the cracked windowpane helped to calm her down, and she was able to think clearly enough for a few seconds to appreciate the view outside.

It was beautiful.

The sun was just beginning to set over the tops of the distant hills, painting the sky in the most stunning shades of pinks and reds that Charlotte had ever seen. The colours were reflected in the crystal blue lake, and the cool evening breeze coming off the mountains whispered through the trees, causing a few leaves to flutter down onto the grass.

It looked so picturesque, that for a moment Charlotte forgot about that strange encounter in the library.

Just for a moment.

And then the confusion hit her like a freight train.

What the hell had that been?

It had been just like the day before on the train where Sean had hugged her. And things had gotten awkward, except not right away. This time the awkwardness had kind of been prolonged.

But why?

Because he'd said something sweet? Or because she hadn't realized they were holding hands?

Wait…why were they holding hands again?

Charlotte found that she didn't have an answer to that either as she put her head in her hands.

With a defeated sigh she lifted her head and rubbed at her eyes, glancing at her watch as she did so and gasped at the time.

She only had five minutes before her meeting with Charlie.

Pushing everything about Sean from her mind, she took off running down the hallway, just wanting to forget what had happened in the library and go back to a time when her friends acted normal.

When had things gotten so confusing?

* * *

It took Charlotte longer than she had expected to reach Charlie's house.

As much as she tried not to think about it, Sean's weird behaviour kept creeping back into her mind and thinking about it seemed to slow down her walking pace considerably. That, and stopping to re-adjust her scarf every few minutes added a good fifteen minutes onto her trip. And so by the time she reached the little stone hut at the edge of the forest, she was running a good twenty minutes late.

She had almost reached the house when she heard it. That familiar little chirp.

"Friend!" cried Tess, as she swooped down from the air and landed on Charlottes shoulder.

"Hello Tessie! Have a nice time in the Owlery with Padfoot?" Charlotte smirked.

Tess nodded shyly, and pecked at Charlotte's cheek affectionately. "I missed you too," Charlotte admitted, stroking the little bird's head and back. It was times like this when she felt confused and overwhelmed that Charlotte really valued Tessie's company.

"Friend OK?" Tess asked concernedly, hopping along Charlotte's shoulder to nuzzle her neck with her head.

"I'll tell you about it later, I promise," Charlotte sighed, and petted Tess once more before continuing on with her walking. "But right now we've got to go and see Charlie," she said with a small smile, starting to feel better already just having Tess around.

Not wanting to waste any more time, she reached the house and quickly hopped up the three wooden steps to the front door and knocked loudly.

She waited for about a minute and then knocked again.

Still no answer. Had she missed him?

She hopped off the steps and went round the side of the circular house. Thankfully there were a few stacked boxes for her to climb on just outside the window, and she wiped off some of the evening dew to peer through it into the little house.

A fire was roaring away in the hearth, a tea cup sat on the table and a few dishes in the sink, the bed was unmade and a couple of newspapers and books were laid on the coffee table by the two overstuffed armchairs on the far side.

No Charlie.

Charlotte jumped off of the boxes then, looking around her for any sign of the friendly Professor. The sun had set completely now over the lake, and her only source of light was the moon shining up above and the few twinkling stars that glistened in the night sky.

Figuring it was worth one last shot, she went round again to the back of the house to check the small paddock that bordered the forest, and breathed a sigh of relief when she did.

Off in the distance, beyond the paddock's edge under the trees, she saw a small creature and a few flickering flames. At first glance, the animal looked like a dog but as she hopped the fence and crossed through the long blades of grass towards it, she saw scales and a long tail in the brief moments where the space surrounding Kitten was lit up.

As she crossed the boundaries of the paddock and into the line of trees, Charlotte wondered what was causing the flickering light before she heard a familiar laugh and got her answer.

"Bless you," Charlie chuckled, rubbing the little Dragon's back as she sniffed and wiggled her snout.

She was still for a moment before she sneezed again, and a few tendrils of orange and purple flames snaked out of her nostrils.

"And bless you again," he smiled.

Charlotte stood motionless, leaning on a tree trunk and grinning to herself. She'd just seen a baby Dragon sneeze. How cool was that?!

"Hello, Profes- I mean, Charlie," Charlotte said stupidly, thankfully catching herself at the last minute.

Charlie spun around and looked up and smiled at her as Tess flew towards him. "Good evening," he said brightly.

Charlotte, who had been gaping at the Dragon before, now openly gaped at him as Tess hovered in front of him – almost surveying him – before chirping once and landing on his shoulder.

"She-You-" Charlotte stammered, pointing between the little bird and Charlie. "How did you do that?!" she gasped.

"Do what?" Charlie replied innocently, tickling the feathers just at the curve of Tess's neck.

"Sh-She never goes to anyone unless she knows them or trusts them completely! She won't even go to Fred!"

Charlie chuckled at that. "Now does that really surprise you?" he snickered before realizing she was being serious and gave a casual shrug of his shoulders. "I don't know, I've always been good with animals. I guess they can just sense things like that about people." Almost as if on cue, Kitten nuzzled into his side to prove his point. Charlie didn't have the slightest fear that a baby dragon was snuggling up to him. In fact, he welcomed it, and sat down on the ground beside her to pet stroke her scales while at the same time letting Tess peck affectionately at his hair. "I understand animals," he explained. "Better than humans, sometimes. I think I prefer animals if I'm being honest."

Charlotte nodded in a daze and sat down on a tree root beside him. "I know what you mean," she said earnestly. "Especially Jobberknolls and Dragons, they're incredible!"

"You really like your animals, don't you?" Charlie remarked, giving her a smile.

Charlotte's reply was instantaneous. "Mhm, I have a very healthy respect for them," she nodded.

"That's good," Charlie praised. "It's nice to see a kid so passionate about magical creatures, most people your age could care less," he frowned, remembering how Fred and George had once used Ron's Puffskein as a Bludger for Quidditch practice when they were kids. Ron had cried on and off for a straight week after that creature died.

"They misjudge them," Charlotte said sadly. "People are scared of certain animals because of the way they look. Take Dragons for instance," she said gesturing towards the baby Dragon, who at that moment in time had her head resting soundly on Charlie's leg. "She's possibly the sweetest thing I've come across in a long time – yet you saw how people reacted in class today when they saw her. They automatically judge based off of stereotypes, when really, it's all one big misunderstanding."

Charlie gave her a bemused smile. "I completely agree with you," he stated, amazed that a girl of her age had such insight into something so many people failed to see. "In fact you're really right in what you say. Our friend, Kitten here is the perfect example of showing how appearances can be deceiving."

"Friend?" Tess asked, causing them to laugh.

"You too, Tessie," Charlotte cooed. "You're great too."

At that, the Jobberknoll's wings gave a little flutter and she took off from Charlie's shoulder to weave in between the trees.

Charlie followed her every move, fascinated by her. Like Charlotte with Dragons, Jobberknolls were the kind of animal he'd only ever heard about but never actually seen.

"Where'd you get her?" he asked in awe.

Although she knew that he meant nothing by it, it still made Charlotte frown and she turned to watch the little bird with a sad kind of glint in her eyes. "I honestly don't remember," she admitted in a quiet voice. "I-I've had Tess for so long that I don't even know where I got her from…All I know is that she's been there for me a lot throughout my life. The good times and the bad."

Charlie heard the emotion thicken in her voice, and he looked over to see her gazing at the bird with such a despondent look that it tugged at his heart a bit to see her so sad, and, not wanting to press the topic any further, he hurriedly moved on to change the subject.

"Have you ever thought of a career with animals, Miss Williams?" he asked light-heartedly.

To his surprise, Charlotte shuddered. "Do you have to call me that?" she moaned.

"You don't like your last name?" Charlie asked confusedly.

Charlotte shook her head and then turned around to watch Tess again. "It reminds me of my mother," she glowered.

Tess stopped flying at the mention of the wicked witch, and she came back over to sit on the ground between Charlotte and Charlie and looked up at him with a thunderous expression.

"Mother," Tess growled.

"Oh?" Charlie prompted, looking at her with a curious expression.

"I-I don't get along with my mother," Charlotte revealed, looking up through the gap in the canopy of leaves above their heads to the night sky. This was the first time she was talking about her mother to anyone. "We fight all the time."

Charlie leaned forward, eager to learn more. "Doesn't your father do anything to help?" he pressed.

"My father isn't around," Charlotte replied simply, an icy edge to her voice. "He left before I was born – or so I'm told. I've never met him before."

"Oh," Charlie uttered. "I'm sorry to hear that," he apologized, and Charlotte could hear the sincerity in his voice.

"It's OK," Charlotte shrugged. "It's just sometimes, I wish he was around because well, apart from Tess there's no one else to talk to at home. And mum doesn't like me that much, so I'm on my own most of the time…"

Charlie didn't really know what to say to that. The situation she was describing was so different from the family relationship he'd grown up with as a child. "I'm sure that's not true," he eventually said.

"It is," Charlotte corrected, quick to argue. Kitten, who had been listening to the pair talk heard Charlotte's voice crack on the last word and recognized that something was wrong. Wanting to make it better, the little Dragon pushed herself up on all four legs and stumbled her way over the bumpy ground towards her.

Charlotte gave Kitten a watery smile as she held out her hand for Kitten to sniff, like you'd do with a dog who was coming up to say hello, before Kitten bumped it with her nose and she moved to cup her cheek and stroke her head.

"My mum doesn't like magic, you know. Which is kind of backwards considering she's a witch."

Charlie blinked at Charlotte who patted the Dragon on the snout and as she felt his eyes on her she lifted her head to look back at him, noticing the slightest of frowns furrow his forehead.

"What's wrong?" she asked worriedly. Had she said something to upset him or had she simply said too much?

Charlie shook his head and scratched it perplexedly. "Oh what? Oh – it's nothing. Nothing at all, it's just…I had a friend like that - once," he muttered in a faraway kind of face.

"Hmm," Charlotte mused. "Do you have any kids, Charlie?"

The red-head chuckled at that, taken aback by the casualness of her tone. "I have one right here" he joked, pointing right at Kitten.

Charlotte giggled. "I'll be sad to see her go actually. How is she getting back to Romania?"

"Some of my friends are coming to get her," Charlie replied with a smile.

"Oh, that's good I guess," Charlotte pondered. "Are you going to miss her?"

"Very much," he nodded. "I was there the day Kitten was brought to the park in Romania, I've cared for her since before I came over here. I kind of feel responsible for her."

"She'll be OK, don't worry. It's not like she's badly behaved and will be any trouble back at the park. She's very good natured for a baby Dragon."

"She is," Charlie nodded.

Kitten watched as Tess came flying towards Charlotte and landed on her shoulder.

"Safe?" Tess whispered in Charlotte's ear as she began shaking. She did NOT like this thing.

"It's OK, Tessie," Charlotte assured her. "You're safe with Kitten."

They sat in comfortable silence for a while, both of them petting Kitten and watching her play with the falling leaves before Charlie spoke again.

"I know it's none of my business," he began hesitantly, not really sure how to proceed. "But what is it exactly between you and my nephew, James?"

Charlotte was taken aback by that. "W-What do you mean?"

Charlie shrugged casually. "It's just you two seem so fond of each other. I don't think I've ever seen James that way around a girl – he only stopped believing girls had 'cooties' two years ago," he chuckled. "So what's the deal?"

Charlotte flushed red and it was unlucky that Kitten chose that moment to set the nearest bush on fire. In the dim light, Charlie could make out the pink tinge on Charlotte's cheeks.

"We're-We're friends. Good friends," she said simply.

"Nothing more?" Charlie pressed.

"Pfft no," she scoffed. "We may flirt and mess around with each other, but it doesn't go further than that. He's like a brother to me."

"Eh - If you say so," Charlie smirked.

"I do," she nodded. "What about you?"

It was Charlie's turn to stammer now. "W-What do you mean?"

Charlotte found herself giggling at how red his cheeks turned at the question. "I mean do you have a special someone?" she clarified.

The blush went as quickly as it came, and in its place a sad kind of frown found its way onto Charlie's face and a flicker of hurt flashed through Charlie's eyes. "I-I was engaged once," he said, quietly. "A long time ago…"

Charlotte didn't miss the use of past tense in relation to the engagement, and rather than linger on it anymore, she simply chose to move on.

"Oh," was her reply.

And as another comfortable silence swept over them, they didn't say anything more about it.

* * *

It was late by the time Charlotte returned to the Common Room that night, and so she didn't see any of the boys until the next morning.

Not that she minded. She'd skilfully managed to avoid Sean all morning – from dodging him in the Common Room as he milled around trying to find the Herbology Essay that the boys had nicked off of him the night before, to managing to make it to breakfast without any awkward encounters.

She sauntered into the Great Hall and took out the previous day's Daily Prophet to keep her distracted as she helped herself to a scone and jam.

Her happiness was short-lived however, when with only fifteen minutes left of breakfast, James and Fred finally stumbled grumpily into the Great Hall.

Fred glared at Charlotte when he sat down across from her. "Tell me one reason why I shouldn't pour this whole pitcher of pumpkin juice in your lap?"

Charlotte was taken aback by that and blinked at him innocently. "What? What did I do?"

"Three bloody hours we ran around this castle looking for you last night!" he huffed, sounding a lot like a nagging old woman.

"But-But I told you I was going to tutoring with Sean in the library!"

"Yes, but see, you're forgetting to factor in the tiny detail that we have no freaking idea where the library is!" James grumbled.

Charlotte rolled her eyes, the ends of her mouth tugging upward. "You know we have the Marauders Map for situations like that?"

"And since when have we ever needed the map to find the bloody library?!" Fred implored, throwing

his hands up in the air out of frustration.

"Since last night obviously, smart one," Charlotte snickered, taking another bite of her scone.

Fred glared at her. "I wouldn't insult the boy with the pitcher of pumpkin juice in his hands if I were you."

Charlotte laughed. "Point taken."

"Ugh, I better have a free block period. I'm bloody shattered," James moaned, bringing his head down to rest on the table.

Charlotte snorted. "You just woke up," she chuckled.

"Speaking of, what _do_ we have first mate?" Fred asked, his mood seeming to lighten a bit as he piled his plate up with a mountain of eggs, bacon and toast. Oh, what a simple being he was.

"Don't know," James sighed as he lifted his head off the table and poured himself a glass of juice. "Didn't bring my time table."

Charlotte rolled her eyes. "Well luckily for you two, I did," she teased, and she reached inside her book bag and pulled out the piece of parchment and held it out for the boys. "Here. But I'm warning you ahead of time, you're not going to like what class we have first but-"

"ARITHMANCY?! At 8:30 in the bloody morning? What the hell was McGonagall thinking when she designed these timetables?!" Fred screeched. "And bloody Merlin, we have it with the goddamn Slytherins! I'm seriously thinking that McGoggles has gone completely insane! This is like…like…child abuse or something! It's a cruel form of torture! She's out to ruin my life," he groaned uncontrollably.

Both James and Charlotte blinked at him. "Well, someone is a tad overdramatic this morning," she observed.

Fred glared at her. "I'm still holding the pumpkin juice pitcher."

"Since when was making a casual observation such a crime?" Charlotte asked, feigning innocence.

"Hello, all," someone greeted and everyone turned to find Sean sauntering down the aisle towards him and hesitating before taking the spare seat next to Charlotte.

The tension between the pair was apparent, as both refused to look at one another and tucked into their own meals as a distraction from the awkwardness.

It was then that James turned to Fred. "I've figured out who you can throw that pumpkin juice at."

"What? All I say is 'hello all' and the next thing I know you're plotting to throw a pitcher of pumpkin juice in my face?" Sean complained.

"Oh, you're right," James responded with a frown and turned back to Fred. "Throw in a pitcher of cranberry juice too."

Sean gave them both a puzzled look as he piled his plate up with food. "Can I ask what for before I'm assaulted with juice?"

"No," Fred and James replied in unison.

Charlotte groaned inwardly and rather than receive her second shower of the day by courtesy of James and Fred, she decided to step in and put the awkwardness aside with Sean for five seconds to explain.

"They ran all over the castle last night looking for us apparently," she said with an eye roll.

Sean blinked at her. "They know we have the map for situations like that right?"

"And again, I say in what situation have we _ever_ needed to find the bloody library?!" Fred cried, his grumpiness fast returning.

"Apparently last night?" Sean drawled sarcastically.

Fred glared at them both. "You know sometimes I really hate smart people," he whined, and proceeded to stab his eggs with his fork.

"Of course you do dear," Charlotte said, shaking her head at him. "By the way, why were you looking for us last night?"

"OH YEAH! James! James!" Fred said, smacking James on the arm to get his attention.

James turned his head to face him slowly, his expression completely unamused. "You know I'm sitting _right_ here, no need to hi-"

"Yeah, whatever, just show them the article!" Fred said distractedly.

James sighed and reached into his own bag and pulled out the evening edition of the Daily Prophet, and smoothed it out on the table in front of Sean and Charlotte.

"I'm asking in advance, please don't scream when you see this? I don't think my tired ears can take i-"

"WHAAAAAATTTTT?!" Charlotte shrieked, causing several students at surrounding tables to jump and give her a look.

Fred uncovered his ears, which were still ringing from the shrill scream and turned to face James. "You were saying?" he drawled dryly.

Charlotte gave them both a pointed look before jabbing a finger at the article. "Can we move away from focusing on my scream and start wondering what the _hell_ we're going to do about this?!"

"Yeah, I mean…I know the place is a shithole, but it's our shithole," Sean pouted. "It's the place where we-"

"Do shit and stuff, we know," James said, cutting him off and slumping down in his seat.

"Exactly! They can't be shutting it down! Where are we going to go in the Full Moons?!"

Fred looked at Sean and shrugged. "That's what we tried finding you last night to talk to you guys about, we need a new clubhouse."

"Yeah, but where?" Charlotte asked in an obvious tone.

"Well I don't know! You're the brainy ones, you figure it out!" Fred said.

Sean pulled the article over to read through it. "Hmmm maybe we should have used our tutoring session last night to come up with some possibilities then." He'd said it without thinking, and instantly regretted it when he felt Charlotte tense up by his side and the awkwardness came rushing back.

James, who had been watching Charlotte closely, noticed the sudden change – not only in her but the atmosphere too – and he narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the pair sitting across from him.

"Speaking of," he started casually. "How was your tutoring session last night?"

"Fine!" Charlotte cried, maybe a bit too quickly.

It was Fred's turn to take notice of the odd shift in the conversation as he stopped stabbing his eggs and looked up at the pair.

"Really?" he asked. "Anything interesting happen?" he asked warily, to which Charlotte laughed nervously.

"No! No! Not at all! Why – I mean- why would you think something happened?"

James gave her a reproachful look. "Well for one, the way you two are acting." Charlotte seemed to shift subconsciously uncomfortably in her seat to prove his point. "And two, the fact that neither of you are willing to look at each other!" Sean turned to look at her then, his eyes sparkling as he did so. He didn't think she'd still be feeling awkward about it today, but clearly she was.

Charlotte felt herself shrink into her seat, unable to really bring herself to look at Sean to her right. "I errr-have a urmmm- a kink in my neck. Yeah, yeah that's it, it hurts if I turn to the right see?" she turned her head a fraction of the way to the right before pretending to wince and shrugged her shoulders. "Yup! See? Can't do it."

James, far from convinced gave her one more long critical look before turning back to his breakfast. Clearly he wasn't going to get an answer any time soon.

Fred watched the interaction between his friends, not really sure what was more odd. The fact that Charlotte and Sean were obviously feeling awkward around each other or the fact that James seemed to be caring just a tad too much.

But before any of them could say anything more on the subject, the bell rang, signalling the end of breakfast and Charlotte was the first one to shoot up out of her seat.

"Oh, well would you look at the time?! Best be getting off to Arithmancy!" she exclaimed, a bit too enthusiastically.

"Oh, I'll walk you to class," Sean offered, moving to stand up too and follow her down through the hall.

"NO!" she yelled, a bit too loudly as she held her hands up to stop him. "Stay," she pointed, backing away slowly before turning and taking off into a full on sprint to Arithmancy.

James and Sean stared after her – James far from convinced that nothing had happened the night before and Sean wondering if maybe holding her hand hadn't been the best of decisions last night.

Still, he wasn't going to give up trying to get closer to her.

And James wasn't going to stop trying to figure out what was going on.

* * *

Charlotte reached Advanced Transfiguration pretty quickly that afternoon, to find Professor McGonagall sitting at her desk, her usual rigid smile and strict eyes framing her face.

With it being their last class of the day, she wanted to just get it over and done with quickly. One more class, and she could just relax and think over her situation with Sean. Until she did that, she wanted to keep her distance to stop any more awkward encounters.

When the bell rang and most of the class had already shown up, Charlotte thought she was completely home-free of any awkwardness that might have occurred. It sadly didn't come as a surprise to her when Sean walked in leisurely seconds later, with James and Fred straggling behind - laughing and hardly caring that they were interrupting the beginning of class.

She had hoped that by picking a double desk in the classroom near the front, and putting her book bag in the chair next to her, that Sean would take the hint and not come and sit by her.

No such luck, instead, he sat at the three seater desk right behind her and was joined by Fred and James, who were still laughing with one another.

"Oh, I'm sorry, are you boys here to chat or to learn?" Professor McGonagall asked them firmly.

Fred grinned and placed his books on the desk beside Sean, who was giving them a wary look. "Well, if I had known chatting was an option in the syllabus this year, then-"

"I suggest you don't finish that sentence and take a seat Mr. Weasley."

"Yes, McGoggles," he grinned.

She gave him a stern look.

"I mean, Professor McGonagall," he smirked, rolling his eyes.

Despite herself, Charlotte stifled a laugh, earning a curious look from Professor McGonagall.

"Welcome to Advanced Transfiguration," she started. "This class won't be easy and you certainly won't pass unless you put in the effort I expect you to put in. Every paper I assign, I expect everyone to receive high marks. Every exam I give, I expect you all to study hard and get E's and O's-"

"Guess I should just leave now then?" Fred smirked at James, earning another stern look from McGoggles.

"-This won't be an easy class, but I expected every single one of you to come out with exceptional Transfiguration skills."

"Does this mean I actually have to do work?" James whined softly, causing a snicker from his two friends.

McGonagall's eyes trailed over to where the boys were sitting, a frown forming on her face. "I know it may seem like a long way off but you are all taking your O.W.L.s in just two short years and it is my job to train you for them!"

The mood in the room changed completely and Fred was the first to bang his head off the desk as McGonagall embarked on a discussion about the provisions of the course and the importance of the O.W.L.s. She continued to discuss the work ethic needed, the endless practice that will be expected out of class, the multiple in-class labs, and the large-scaled project they were all expected to complete.

The moment the word 'partners' flew out of her mouth, the whole class immediately sat up and was on high alert.

When that word was uttered it could either mean success, as in choosing your own partner, or complete failure.

"If we pick our own partners, I call Sean," Fred hissed.

"No!" James whispered back in frustration. "You always get him! It's my turn!"

"But I called dibs first!" Fred whined. "That's standard Marauder procedure."

"I hate being the dedicated one in this group," Sean muttered.

"What am I? A troll?" Charlotte mumbled.

"He's mine!"

"Mine!"

Sean sighed. "Why couldn't I have been placed in Ravenclaw?" he muttered to no one in particular.

"Rock-paper-scissors for him?" Fred whispered.

James groaned. "Why does it always come down to this?"

"Do you have a better idea?"

"Don't I get any say in this at all?" Sean asked.

"No," they both chorused.

"You always manage to win!" James argued, shaking his head.

"Because you always choose the bloody rock!"

"That's because I can't understand how anything can beat rock, much less a measly piece of flimsy paper!" he hissed.

"It's a game!"

"Yeah, a game that I always end up losing!"

"Oh, c'mon, don't be such a baby."

James made a face and let out a relenting sigh. "Fine," he murmured, holding out his hand. "Rock…paper…scissors…shoot."

Fred threw his fist in the air triumphantly when he whipped out scissors against James' paper.

"Bloody hell," James swore. "This is why I choose rock! Best out of 3?"

Fred grinned and leaned back in his chair. "No way."

"As many of you are probably wondering," said McGonagall, ignoring the furious whispering of the second generation Marauders in the middle of the room. "I have already chosen the partners for the projects mostly because it is important to be assigned to someone with your intelligence level."

"Oh praise Merlin," Sean muttered, as the rest of the class groaned immediately. This didn't sound good.

"Damn! What a waste of a good rock-paper-scissors game," Fred whined.

"You call that good?" James asked confusedly.

"Shhhhhhhhhhhhh," Charlotte hushed, not wanting to miss the name of her partner because they couldn't shut up.

This was either going to go really well – as in she'd get Fred – or really awfully and she'd get Sean.

But knowing her luck right now, Charlotte was likely to get saddled with Sean.

"Our first pairing is: Fred Weasley and James Potter."

"Ohhhh yeah," James grinned as he and Fred high-fived each other.

"You know you're going to get absolutely _no_ work done right?"

"Who cares?! This class is gonna be a breeze!" Fred declared.

As the boys celebrated behind her, Charlotte waited on pins and needles as the rest of the partners were named off one by one.

"Druella Goyle and Lorcan Scamander."

"Leslie Chang and Lysander Scamander."

"Lisa Longbottom and Dmitri Zabini."

"And our final pairing, Charlotte Williams and Sean Finnigan."

Charlotte's shoulders slumped as she fell back defeatedly in her chair.

Yeah, her luck was definitely not on her side.


	5. Chapter 5

Fred lay in bed that Friday morning, the suns' rays streaming in through the gap in between the drapes of his Four Poster bed and landing on his sleeping eyes. "Ughh," he groaned as he stuffed his head under his pillow and held it there. "Piss off sun, I'm not done with yesterday yet," he muttered.

He heard the bed to the right creak as James rolled over, finding that he had the same problem as Fred with the sun landing across his eyes.

He rolled around restlessly, trying to hide his face with his hands, but when it proved to be useless he kicked his covers off moodily and lay defeated on top of the mattress as his eyes fluttered open.

"How is it possible that the sun is 93020000 miles away, and yet it hits my face with perfect aim first thing in the morning?" he grumbled.

"Black Magic," Fred yawned from under his pillow.

From behind both of their sets of curtains, they heard Sean yawn loudly before calling over to Fred. "Your arguments get more and more plausible every day Freddie," he drawled sarcastically.

"Yeah mate, I highly doubt the sun knows Black Magic," James smirked. He was starting to wake up now and ran his hands through his head of messy brown hair as he slung his legs over the side of the bed.

Fred chucked his pillow off of his head and stuck his head out in-between his drapes to squint at Sean.

His dark red hair was sticking out in all directions, and his freckles looked very pronounced as he squinted at Sean across the room.

"Fine then, it's the gits that live on the sun!" he insisted as he rubbed at his eyes. "Either way they're out to get us."

Sean pulled back his own curtains and just gave Fred a dry look. "Your logic astounds me."

"Thank you," Fred nodded, the hint of a smile playing at his tired face.

"That wasn't a compliment," Sean blinked.

Fred shrugged tiredly before bringing his arms up above his head and stretching loudly. "Ah you say potato, I say po-tah-to."

"Except we don't because you've never said po-tah-to in your life," Sean corrected.

Fred's sleep-filled brown eyes narrowed into thin slits. "Go away smart person, my brain isn't awake yet," he grumbled as he climbed out of bed and staggered towards the bathroom door.

"Is it ever?" James smirked.

Fred stopped walking to the bathroom and turned to smirk at James. "Oh that's right, piss off the guy who has the power to use up all of the hot water in his 20 minute shower. Smart move."

Sean blinked at his friends as he slung his legs over the side of his bed. "Since when did you take 20 minute showers?" he dared to ask.

"Since now," Fred replied casually, a mischievous smirk glinting in his brown eyes.

"You wouldn't," James glared, climbing out of bed too.

"Wanna bet?" Fred challenged as his sparkling eyes looked over to the bathroom door and then back to James.

"You're not seriou-"

Sean was cut off by the sound of scuffling and shoving as Fred and James both set off at the same time and started kicking and shoving each other aside.

"Oh apparently you are," Sean remarked with a shake of his head.

"OUCH!" James yelled as Fred elbowed him in the stomach and made to run for the bathroom door which was just a few feet away. James recovered quickly enough, and his eyes widened when he saw Fred reach for the door handle. Determined to stop him he lunged himself at his cousin, grabbing him around the middle and tackling him to the floor.

"Give it up!" Fred cried over the top of James's grunts as he tried kicking him off him.

"ARGH- NEVER!" James shouted defiantly. That momentary lapse of concentration was all Fred needed to bring his legs up, and in one swift motion shove James in the stomach and off of him.

"AH HA!" Fred's voice rang out victoriously as he scrambled towards the bathroom door and threw his arms up in the air while James lay winded on the floor, clutching his poor stomach. "You can't beat me, for I am THE KING OF SHOWERS!"

James groaned as he watched Fred slam the door and use a locking charm on it. He then allowed his head to beat off of the floor in defeat.

Connor McLaggen, who HAD been trying to sleep through the scuffle, poked his head out from underneath his pillow to squint at James and Sean.

"You lot talk some rubbish first thing in the morning, you know that?" he moaned before burying himself under his covers again.

Sean simply nodded at him as he turned to look at James on the ground and cover his ears as Fred's rendition of a Cat's Choir drifted through the gap under the door and he heard the shower turn on.

"My friends ladies and gentleman," he drawled.

* * *

"I-I-I can't f-feel my t-t-toes."

Fred and Sean both turned to look at James, whose teeth were chattering after his freezing cold shower as they descended down the winding staircase and into the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Oh get a grip, it wasn't that cold," Fred said with an eye roll.

James's eyes narrowed into thin slits at his cousin. "Says the person who used all the bloody hot water!"

Fred jumped the last two stairs before turning around to face James as he waggled a single finger in front of him. "Ah - no need for that kind of language now," he tutted pompously. "I did warn you not to insult the King of Showers didn't I?"

"Yeah and then you went ahead and locked me out anyway!" James retorted as he wrapped his robes tighter around himself. He couldn't remember a time he'd been this cold before.

"Oh no dear cousin, may I remind you that you were the one who dared me?" Fred smiled as he flopped into an armchair by the fireplace and put his feet up on the coffee table.

James blinked at him as he opted to sit on the floor by the hearth for a heat. "In what way did I dare you?"

Fred sighed and leaned forward in his chair as he addressed his cousin. "Well, after I warned you came back with, and I quote: "You wouldn't." Now that to me is a direct challenge against my reign over the bathroom, and as King it is my responsibility to defend my title and so naturally I took that as an opportunity to show you who's boss. A Marauder never backs down from a challenge! It's standard Marauder procedure!"

He settled back into his chair, satisfied that he'd won his argument only to be met by the blank stares of his friends. "What?"

"Did you seriously just try and use that as a justification?" Sean said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Yeah...why?" Fred asked confusedly, looking between his two friends.

"Because whoever crowned you King of the Bathroom clearly got you confused with the King of Booshwah," Sean sniggered.

"Yeah Mate," James chuckled. "I think we can just write off your reasoning skills as a lost cause," he smirked.

They'd expected Fred to come back with some kind of retort, but instead he just leaned back in his chair and smiled at them. "King of Booshwah? Stuff that, with my amazing comebacks I should be dubbed the Arch Bishop of Banterbury!"

James and Sean stopped laughing at the same time as they were stunned into silence.

"That one was actually quite good," James praised, turning to Sean for some kind of agreement.

Sean nodded as his mouth twitched into a smile. "I have to agree Mate, your banter's getting better," he mused. "Meh, I'll give you that one. Take a bow good sir, take a bow."

Fred happily obliged and hopped up on the coffee table in full view of everyone to do the funniest bow James had ever seen.

James and Sean joined in, and after a minute or so the crowd began to disperse - shaking their heads and laughing to themselves over the second generation Marauders. Fred hopped off the coffee table and beamed at his friends.

"Well, I think that went quite well," he mused as he fell back into his cosy chair.

Sean, still chuckling to himself sat himself back down as well and pulled out his planner to look over his timetable for the day. "I'd say you've definitely redeemed yourself for this mornings shenanigans," he agreed.

"Oh no, no, no, no, I'm still freezing," James complained as he curled up into a ball by the fireplace. "I think I might get a cold," he whined.

Fred simply turned his head to his cousin and smiled sweetly. "All is fair in Showers and War," he quipped.

James, still shaking as he warmed up his toes gave Fred a dirty look. "You call kicking me in the stomach and forcing me to the floor 'fair'?"

"A King's gotta do what a King's gotta do," Fred shrugged.

"Yeah, well the King better watch before the Duke takes his head off," James grumbled.

Sean shook his head at the pair and checked his watch. "Hey breakfast started five minutes ago guys, are we going or not?"

James's stomach rumbled and he patted it sadly. "Yeah, I'm starving," he pouted.

Fred shrugged at them as he looked around the Common Room. "Sure, just as soon as Charlotte gets here."

Both James and Sean seemed to sit up straighter then and look around the room. "Speaking of, where is she?" Sean asked confusedly.

"Perhaps her Ladyship hasn't awoken out of her Chamber yet?" Fred offered, still looking around the room.

"Where do you get this stuff?"

Fred smirked at James. "All from here," he informed him, tapping his head knowingly.

James rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well her Ladyship had better get a move on because my stomach's rumbling," James complained, looking around the room too.

"You don't think she could have gone down to breakfast already?" Sean questioned.

Fred shook his head. "She usually waits for us."

Almost as if on cue, students milling about the Common Room began to shuffle towards the portrait hole, and tired looking students stumbled down the dormitory stairs on their way to breakfast.

One of those such students happened to be coming down the girls staircase, and all sat up expectantly. Hoping to see Charlotte.

Their excitement was short lived however as a strand of bouncy strawberry blonde appeared and Dominique came down the stairs, holding onto the metal railing with one well-manicured hand.

"Only Dom," James mumbled dejectedly as she reached the bottom of the stairs and made her way over to the Portrait Hole with the others.

"Yeah," Fred sighed, before a thought occurred to him and he called out to her. "OI! DOM! HEY DOMINIQUE!"

She stopped in her tracks and perked a perfectly shaped eyebrow at them. "Yes?"

"Where's Char?"

Dominique gave James a deadpan expression. "Am I supposed to know who that is?"

Fred and James shared a frustrated look before turning back to their cousin.

"Our friend, Charlotte," Fred repeated

Dominique twirled a glossy curl around a finger as she wondered who it meant. Then it clicked. "Oh, you mean the one with badly dyed hair and no sense of make up or styling?"

The boys, especially James and Sean ground their teeth together at that and had to bite their tongues to stop from lashing out at her.

She took their irritated expressions to mean yes and shrugged curtly.

"How should I know?"

"No reason - we're just wondering if you've seen her," Fred managed to say through gritted teeth.

"Why would I want to?" she inquired, placing a hand on her hip

"Just answer the question Dom," James said firmly, not liking the way she was talking about Charlotte at all.

"No," she replied in a clipped voice. "Now if you'll excuse me - every second I'm around you damages my popularity," and with that she breezed out of the room.

"She's a cheery one, your cousin," Sean nodded in the direction of the closing portrait hole.

"Yeah, the girls got a stick up her arse!" James called after her, making sure she could hear. A snooty kind of 'hmph' was his reply.

"Like getting blood out of a stone," Fred frowned, shaking his head. "Nevermind then - urmmm LISA!"

The little blonde jumped at the sound of her name being shouted out, but when she caught sight of the boys, Lisa Longbottom came skipping over to see them - her long French braid bouncing around her back and the dimples in her cheeks drawing attention to her freckles and sparkling blue eyes as she smiled.

"Morning boys," she greeted brightly as she reached them. "Wait...why aren't you guys at breakfast?"

"Yeah," Alice, Lisa's identical twin chirped as she came up behind her sister. "Shouldn't you lot be raiding the bacon tray right about now?" she smiled.

"Well, we would be if we knew where Charlotte was," Fred frowned.

"Ye we've been waiting for ages but we haven't seen her."

Lisa looked at Sean with wide eyes. "She hasn't come down at all?"

James shook his head. "Not that we've seen, no."

Lisa and Alice shared a look and nodded once before Alice pushed herself away from the group. "Wait here guys, I'll be back in a few seconds."

The group watched her jog back over to the stairs and then nip up them quickly and out of sight.

"Where's she off to?" Fred wondered aloud, looking after Alice to see what she was doing.

"Going to get Charlotte," Lisa, the shyer one of the twins smiled. She tilted her head around to find the three boys blinking at her. "They share a room," she laughed.

"Oh - OH, well that's good," James grinned.

Lisa nodded. "It's better if she goes, she's the faster one out of us when it comes to runni-"

"-Back," Alice chirped as she reached the group again.

"Bloody hell," Fred jumped as she just appeared beside him again. She wasn't even sweating.

Fred tried to compose himself as Alice gave him an amused smirk, and Sean turned to her with a hopeful expression. "Well, any joy?"

Alice shook her head and frowned at him. "Sorry boys, looks like she's not coming down today."

James's whole body seemed to stiffen at that and he sat up straighter as he gave her a perplexed kind of look. "Did she say why?"

Alice shrugged. "Not feeling well apparently."

The boys all shared a concerned look at that. "Why? What's wrong with her?" Sean questioned, growing worried at the thought of Charlotte not being well.

"Sorry boys she didn't say, but don't worry she'll be fine," Alice told them as she weathered the inside of her cheek. "Hey Lis, we'd better get going if we want to catch Dad before classes start."

Lisa nodded and waved at the boys as she followed her sister over to the portrait hole. "See you in Potions guys!" she smiled before ducking and leaving through the portrait.

The boys mumbled their goodbyes, honestly too worried about Charlotte to really think of anything else.

"What do you reckon?" James asked his friends. "Should we get Madame Pomfrey or something?"

Sean shook his head indignantly. "If she's sick we should leave her be, give her time to rest and get better."

Fred gave them both a dry look. "Yeah, providing she's actually sick," he said sardonically.

Sean looked surprisingly at his friend. "You don't think she's actually sick?"

"She's been fine all of this week hasn't she?" Fred pointed out.

James ran a hand through his untidy brown hair. "I don't know, maybe it's one of these weird 24 hour things girls get?" he offered.

"How do you mean?" Sean asked.

"Well, you know..." James whispered awkwardly, looking around to make sure no one was around to hear him.

Fred and Sean looked at each other before shaking their heads.

"No," they said in unison.

James gave a frustrated roll of his eyes. "You know - their - well...periods and stuff," he murmured.

Fred and Sean blinked at him for a moment before laughter met James's ears, and he found both of his friends practically rolling on the ground in laughter.

"An-And you say I should ditch the dust and cobwebs?!" Fred guffawed, clutching at his sides.

"Yeah mate, that's pretty specialist right there," Sean chortled, wiping at his eyes. "Even Fred sounds more intelligent than that about girls!"

"Yeah, even I- HEY!" Fred protested as he pushed himself up off the ground. "I know stuff like that about girls!"

"Like?"

Fred opened and closed his mouth repeatedly at Sean. "W-Well I don't know! Stuff! But one things for sure, my knowledge is a hell of a lot more accurate than this idiot over here," he gestured towards James.

James gave them both a frustrated look. "Well do you have any better suggestions about what's wrong with her?!"

"No, but there sure is one easy to find out if she's sick or not," Fred reasoned as he smirked in the direction of the winding staircase that led to the Girls Dorms.

"You can't go up there!" Sean hissed as a few stragglers hurried past them on their way to breakfast. "You know that staircase will turn into a slide!"

"Yeah Mate, Godric Gryffindor designed them himself," James reminded him.

Fred simply smiled at him as he approached the stairs. "So?"

"So," Sean scoffed. "A guy like Gryffindor couldn't possibly be dodged by a trick so pathetically dim-witted as hopping a few stairs!"

"Ah but you're forgetting one of the many perks of being a Marauder, Sean," Fred reminded him with a knowing grin. "We're full of plans that are so pathetically dim-witted they're BOUND to work!"

Sean shook his head at him frustratedly. "What are yo-"

"Shhhhh," Fred shushed as he checked to make sure the Common Room was completely empty before moving to step in front of the stairs and closed his eyes to concentrate.

It had taken him and his three closest friends a whole two years to learn to do this and it was only because of the help that they found from a random book in Flourish and Blotts that they'd mastered it last Summer.

It took Sean and James a moment to catch on to what he was doing, before Fred appeared to be shrinking and James chuckled at Sean who simply smiled back. Fred was the smallest one out of them when he transformed – perfect for trying something like this.

Before even a few seconds had passed, a squeak met James and Sean's ears and they looked down to find Fred had completely disappeared.

Only to be replaced by a small red squirrel – its little black eyes glinting up at them and his upper lip curling back to reveal two large teeth in a cheesy smile.

"You know, you're rather smug looking for a squirrel," James remarked.

Fred simply rolled his eyes and gave a dismissive flick of his bushy tail-which amused the boys even more- and without another squeak headed towards the wall of the winding staircase.

He looked up at the smooth surface of the grey stone only for a moment before twitching his nose and proceeding to climb it.

Thankfully his claws were able to grip it easily enough, and within seconds he was rounding the curve in the staircase.

He let out a triumphant chorus of squeaks.

"Slick git," James muttered.

"Smug prick," Sean agreed as they watched him scale the wall effortlessly.

That was until two girls – who the boys recognized as two of Dominique's best friends, Melissa Adams and Marissa George – came down the stairs, and gasped when they saw Fred.

"Oh Melissa!" Marissa squealed as she grabbed Fred off the wall and cradled him to her chest. "Isn't he just the cutest thing you've ever seen?!" she gushed down at him, one of her long chestnut curls tickling his nose and causing it to twitch.

"He's adorable!" Melissa agreed, ruffling the little tufts of hair in-between his pointed ears, just as the boys at the bottom of the stairs broke out into roars of laughter. "He's very tame, isn't he?"

"T-That's one word for him," Sean sniggered.

The girls straightened up at the sight of the sight of the boys at the bottom of the stairs, their sparkling brown eyes taking on a kind of preying look. Despite the fact that they were two years younger, the girls adored the Marauder boys. To Marissa and Melissa, all three boys were gorgeous.

"Oh, hey Sean, I didn't see you there," Melissa smiled coyly as she twirled a curl round her finger. "Is he yours?" she asked, bending down and showing off her legs as she petted Fred in Marissa's arms.

"In a sense," James snickered, trying to suppress the urge to burst out laughing again.

"What's his name?" she asked as she bent down to look at him, not noticing the way the squirrel craned his head to look down her top.

"Tails," James and Sean told them at the same time – using Fred's Marauder nickname.

"Oh he's just so cute, yes you are, aren't you Too-Too?!" Marissa cooed down at him, squeezing him to her chest and ruffling his hair again before placing him down.

"Speaking of cute," Melissa said casually. "Where's Fred?"

They noticed that the squirrel on the ground stopped fussing over fixing his hair and looked up at them both at the mention of Fred's name.

"Oh, I'm sure he's around here somewhere," Sean smiled, trying not to laugh as James bit down on his knuckles to stop him from getting the giggles again.

Melissa and Merissa both shrugged and flicked their hair at the same time as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Well if you see him-"

"-Tell him we say hi," Melissa finished, and they both blew the boys kisses before turning around and waving to Fred on the stairs. "Bye Too-Too!" they called.

"We'll see you-"

"Later!" Marissa finished, and as though they'd been reading each other's minds the girls gave identical thumbs up at the squirrel before turning on their heels and strutting off to the portrait hole.

Fred winked at them, causing the pair to gape before he took off back up the wall and around the curve of the stairs.

"Oh Marissa! H-He winked at me!" Melissa squealed gleefully.

"Eh – no, he winked at ME," Marissa retorted as she left through the Portrait Hole first.

"No – it was me!"

"But it was definitely m-"

The Portrait Hole slammed shut, and by the time it did both James and Sean were doubled over with laughter.

"Too-Too!" James chortled, laughing so hard he was having to gasp for air.

"We should tie bows in his hair!" Sean laughed.

"And get him a little pink collar!"

"Do and die!" came a voice from up above, and they both looked up to see that Fred had phased back into his human form and was smirking at them from over the wrought iron railing at the top of the landing.

"Oh Too-Too angry?" Sean pouted up at him.

"Piss off," Fred growled from over the top of the banister.

"Oh, Too-Too is angry!" James said in a baby-like voice, feigning mock shock.

"I don't know what I find more irritating – the fact that you're calling me Too-Too or that you fail to praise me for my expert climbing skills!" Fred cried, throwing his hands up in the air out of frustration.

"Oh Too-Too sad that his new friends didn't get to see his climbing skills?" Sean asked, still in the baby voice.

"Oh Friends!" James cooed.

"New Friends!"

"Alright now you're completely taking the piss," Fred drawled, completely unamused by his friends antics as they continued cooing 'Friend!' at him.

"Oh don't forget the wink!" Sean reminded James, and they both burst out laughing before imitating the wink that Fred had given the girls.

"Or the Thumbs Up!" James guffawed, doing a dorky thumbs up.

"Oh Winking Friend!"

"Thumbs Up Friend!"

"Oh Friend!

"Friend!"

Fred narrowed his eyes at the boys on the ground, doing thumbs up and mental winks left, right and centre.

"I'll be going now," Fred announced to anyone willing to care.

"Alright Too-Too!"

"Too-Too Friend!"

"I don't know why I hang around you two," Fred muttered as he pushed himself away from the banister. "Don't wait around!" he called to them as he climbed the next set of winding stairs up to the third floor for Charlotte's dorm.

Once Fred was out of sight, the boys calmed down quickly enough. Although they still had tears running down their cheeks and wiped away at them, their faces still lit up from all their laughing.

"That was brilliant."

"It was," Sean agreed, pushing his blonde hair back out of his eyes and sighing as he leaned back against the wall.

"I don't even know where it came from," James shrugged, thinking about the mental baby voice and the hilarious thumbs up.

Sean chuckled at him. "Well, where ever it came from, we're going to have some great fun with it. About time we got that bugger back for all the rubbish he's pulled on us over the past three years!"

James laughed too. "Too bloody right! This morning being a particular low-light!" he said, his teeth starting to chatter again at the reminder of his frigid shower this morning.

"Come on then, Prancer," Sean said with an eyeroll as he put an arm on his friends back and guided him over to the portrait hole. "Let's get you some food to warm you up."

James blinked at Sean. "We're not going to wait for Fred?"

The corners of Sean's mouth tugged upwards as he tried to suppress another rounds of laughs. "No," he managed to say. "We'd better make sure Too-Too gets a good spot near the bacon bowl!"

At the mention of Fred's ridiculous new nick-name, neither one of the boys could stop themselves from laughing and Fred could hear their laughter loud and clear as they departed through the portrait together, yelling 'Friend!' and doing thumbs up and exaggerated winks all the way down to the Great Hall.

* * *

Sunlight poured in through the bedroom window of the Girls Dormitory, causing the girls to stir restlessly in their sleep.

Charlotte rolled over and pulled the blankets up over her head to try and block out the Suns offending light.

It didn't work.

Not only did the red and gold blankets not block out the annoying sun, but they also made it difficult for her to breathe. She pushed them back in agitation and squeezed her eyes shut as tightly as she could.

She sent a silent prayer of thanks to Merlin that this new technique worked.

Now maybe she'd get back to sleep.

No such luck.

**Beep. Beep. Beep.**

A muffled groan met Charlotte's ears as she heard the girl in the bed to her right slam her face into her pillow in an attempt to block out the noise.

**Beep. Beep. Beep.**

Alice Longbottom grumbled under her breath as she lifted her head off the pillow to blink wearily around her. Was it a fire alarm or something? Oh to hell with it if it was. Judging from the fact that she couldn't smell smoke, she figured the flames were a long ways off yet – 5 more minutes of sleep.

**Beep. Beep. Beep.**

"God sake," she moaned as she shifted herself up into a seating position, flicking a wavy strand of unruly blonde hair out of her green eyes and flung her bed curtains open.

Her eyes darted menacingly around the room – searching for the source of the noise.

**Beep. Be-**

"The hell is that?!" Alice questioned, pointing a finger at the alarm clock on her twin sisters nightstand.

Lisa, who had up until that point been sleeping lightly, was forced awake at the sound of her sisters angry questioning and propped herself up on one elbow to look between Alice and the alarm clock.

"That, Ali, is an alarm clock," she said slowly, trying to hold back a smirk as she clicked it off.

Alice simply gave her sister a look. "I can see that Lis, but why in the name of Merlin's left ball sack is it in our room?!"

Alice could have sworn she put an official ban on alarm clocks after she launched the one she'd gotten for Christmas through their bedroom window five years ago.

"Because I put it there," Lisa shrugged, untying the pink ribbons that held her pigtails in place as she sat up in bed.

"Wow thanks for the detailed explanation, you've really cleared things up for me," Alice drawled sarcastically.

Lisa scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Well, how else was I supposed to get you out of bed?"

Alice put a finger to her chin and pretended to ponder on that question for a moment before her face lit up in mock excitement. "Oh I have an idea! You don't!" she announced, before falling back onto her mattress and diving back under the covers.

Lisa frowned at her. "'You don't'? Really? Even from you I was expecting better at 7:10 in the morning," she admitted, standing up and placing a hand on her hip as she shook her head at her twin.

"Hey, my brain doesn't function this early. If you want 'smart Alice' come back between 7:30 and 8:15," she defended from beneath her duvet.

"Ok, two things wrong with that sentence," Lisa sighed as she pushed herself out of bed. "One, I'm not even sure there IS such a thing as a 'smart Alice' – unless you count your pranks on the Slytherins to be your fleeting moments of genius. And two, why couldn't you just have said breakfast?" Lisa inquired, perking an eyebrow at her stubborn sibling.

"I'll ignore that first question considering I can't think of a decent comeback – again I blame the fact that my brain hasn't woken up yet. So to answer the latter one, I repeat the point I stated in my first reply, which is that my brain functions best when it's getting food. What's your point?" Alice called back, clinging on to her covers for dear life.

It wasn't often that Alice was taken by surprise, but she certainly was when her covers were ripped violently out of her hands and she blinked confusedly up at her irate sister.

"My POINT is that your brain isn't going to be functioning AT ALL if you don't get your lazy arse out of bed and down to breakfast!" Lisa cried exasperatedly.

"I don't want to get up," Alice mumbled into her pillow as she struggled against Lisa's grasp to hold onto it. She lost.

"Yes, but you have this thing called classes," Lisa pointed out, continually slapping Alice with the pillow she'd just won in their tug-of-war match.

"School is so unnecessary," Alice groaned.

"No, actually, by learning stuff, you're able to earn a future," Lisa explained.

Alice snorted and tried squeezing her eyes shut even more than they already were. "Well I don't learn stuff and my future is probably depending on you until I die…or you die; whichever comes first. Hopefully you, though, because I'm kinda partial to my life," Alice snickered as he got slapped again by the pillow. "Stop hitting me!"

"But if I die you'll have no one to depend on," Lisa pointed out, jabbing Alice's back with the end of her wand, chuckling at how ticklish she was.

Alice groaned, twitching at Lisa's wand in her back. "Why must you be so logical so early in the morning?" she mumbled, slapping Lisa's wand away. "OK, don't think that the moment I'm fully awake I won't start poking you with my wand and throwing pillows in your face. Just warning you ahead of time."

"Bathroom's free!" Amanda Wood cried out, pulling her brown hair out of her hazel eyes and into a pony tail.

"Look, the bathroom's free! And god knows you need to brush your teeth. I can smell your breath from here!" Lisa groaned, throwing Alice's covers off of her. "C'mon, I'm supposed to be getting help with Herbology homework before first period!"

"Well then go," Alice snickered. "No one's stopping you!"

"If I go, then you will still be in this position when I come back after dinner tonight," Lisa complained, giving Alice her best pleading look.

"Yes, that's why I want you to go," Alice snickered.

Lisa blinked incredulously at her sister before a sly grin appeared on her face, knowing exactly what to say to get Alice up.

"Oh I see, so you don't care that you're ALSO supposed to be getting help with Herbology homework before first period, clearly forgetting that the Professor is our DAD and who will royally kick your butt when he finds out you slept in AGAIN?!"

At the mention of her Dad, Alice sat bolt upright in bed. "I heard something about a bathroom being free?" she asked frantically, looking at her friends for confirmation.

Lisa smirked smugly and Amanda made a sweeping gesture, almost like a bow, towards the bathroom door as Alice staggered out of bed towards it – still half asleep.

Amanda chuckled when the bathroom door slammed shut and she heard the shower hurriedly turn on inside, and she turned to Lisa clapping.

"Well now, I have tae say that's the quickest I've seen you get that one oot of bed in the three years I've known you two," she remarked in her strong Scottish accent.

"It's easy if you know how," Lisa informed her as she tapped her head knowingly, causing Amanda to scoff.

"Aye, says the one who couldn't get her tae budge at all yesterday mornin'," Amanda reminded her.

"Says the one who couldn't get her up the day before!" Lisa pointed out.

The memory caused Amanda to frown as she went over to sit on her bed and pulled on some long white socks before slipping her robes on over her blouse and skirt.

"Aye, well it's not as if I didn't try," she frowned. "I thought the fog-horn being blown in her ear would've woken her up."

It was Lisa's turn to scoff now as she shook her head. "If living with Alice for three years hasn't taught you anything then know this: You need to practically shove a rocket up that girls butt to get her to move," she sniggered.

Amanda joined in the laughter too as she checked her watch, and her eyes almost bugged out of her head when she registered the time. "Aye well do you have that rocket handy noo? Breakfast started ten minutes ago and I didn't fancy going off to class starvin' just because your sister cannot get oot of the shower quick enough," she huffed.

"You're telling me, I'm never going to make it through double Herbology without some food," Lisa replied as she strode across the bedroom to bang on the bathroom door. "ALICE! MOVE I-"

"Bloody hell woman, why don't you tell a bit louder? I don't think the trolls living in the mountains heard you," Alice quipped as she unexpectedly opened the door and calmly walked out to sit on her bed and pull on her socks and shoes.

"I wouldn't BE yelling if you bloody hurried up! Dad's expecting us in TEN MINUTES!"

Alice shrugged. "Well, Dad is just gonna have to wait until I've plundered the Bacon bowl – speaking of…" Alice trailed off as her body tensed and her head snapped up, a look of horror evident on her face. "What if it's empty?! NO! MOVE IT PEOPLE! New objective: Reach the Bacon bowl before anyone else!" she declared as she grabbed her books off her bedside table, tucked her wand behind her ear and scrambled over to the door.

Both Amanda and Lisa stared at her blankly.

"Really? Food?" Lisa begged to ask. "That's what gets you going in the morning?"

"Doesn't it always?" Alice asked obviously.

"Now that you mention it, aye it does – just wish I'd thought of that the other day when I tried waking you up," Amanda giggled, shaking her head at one of her best friends.

Alice's glared back at her friend at the memory. "Don't think I'm not sending still sending you my Medical bill from St. Mungos, Wood. My ear is STILL ringing from that bloody foghorn," she glowered.

Amanda rolled her eyes and opened the door. "Yer such a Drama Queen. C'mon, let's get some food in ye, ye speak less sense than usual when yer hungry."

Alice ignored the jab and instead turned around to face her sister who was gathering her books together from her neatly organized trunk.

"Yeah, food DOES sound good right about now. Are we going or what?!" she called over to Lisa.

Lisa tilted her head up to look at her friends standing by the door, an unreadable kind of expression on her face. It wasn't really a frown, but she didn't look sad either….more concerned.

"We are, but…" she trailed off, not really knowing how to finish the sentence as she nodded her head towards Charlotte's bed. The curtains were still drawn.

Alice and Amanda followed her line of vision to the bed, completely forgetting that Charlotte had yet to surface and their faces wore mirrored expressions of guilt as they muttered "Oh," into the now awkward silence.

Lisa nodded, not believing that her friends were really that thick not to notice.

"Char?" she called out hesitantly.

No reply.

"Sweetie, we're going down to breakfast now if you want to come…"

Again no reply.

Charlotte, who had been awake since the alarm clock went off buried herself further under her blankets and pretended to be asleep.

Somehow she had skilfully managed to dodge her roommates questions about why she was clearly refusing to get out of bed up until now, and she wasn't about to answer them now.

The girls had noticed she'd been acting off all week, really since the second day back – and they knew her well enough to take her silence as a 'No,' knowing fine well she was really awake.

The three girls shared a concerned look before Alice shrugged and they left the room together, closing the door behind them.

Charlotte sighed when she heard the bedroom door close shut. She was close with her roommates, granted not as close as she was with the boys, but after 3 years of rooming together they'd developed a bond – one strong enough for them to know that something was clearly up with Charlotte. And considering she hadn't told them what it was yet, they figured it was better not to ask.

And Charlotte had never been more grateful for that.

For some obscure reason, she had this ominous feeling that she really didn't want to get up that day, like she would find out some bad news that she was better off avoiding. She couldn't remember why, and she wracked her brains to remember.

It wasn't until the image of a gorgeous sandy blonde haired boy with dazzling green eyes floated through her mind that she groaned, and forced her eyelids down tighter.

It was Friday now, and after three days Charlotte still hadn't talked to Sean about the hand-holding incident.

Oh, who was she kidding, even talking in general would be an improvement from their behaviour the last couple of days. Heck, even saying one WORD to each other would be a change!

Truth be told, she couldn't be around Sean without being reminded of what had happened in the library and just the thought of it alone was enough to cause the heat to rise in her cheeks. She hated feeling this weird and awkward over something she couldn't understand, and as much as she wanted to simply ASK him why they'd gone from talking to holding hands in a split second, every time she tried words simply seemed to fail her.

He'd always been her friend. One of her very best friends. He'd always just been Sean. HER Sean. Just like James was her James, and Fred was her Fred. Simply as friends.

And as much as she hated to think about it, she knew that deep down she was just putting off asking Sean about what had happened because she was scared that that friendship might be turning into something else.

Something she wasn't ready for.

Something that right now she wasn't ready for, and quite honestly wasn't sure she ever would be.

And so she hid in her bed. Like a coward, silently questioning the Sorting Hats decision the day he'd placed her in Gryffindor. Charlotte was determined to hide from Sean. To put off that fated conversation.

And it was for that reason she lied to Alice, faking a cough and saying she was sick when mere minutes later the door creaked open and Alice popped her head in – asking her if she was coming down.

She sighed again when the door closed shut for the second time that day, this time a bit sadder than before.

What was she going to do about Sean?

It was only minutes later she heard the door click open again, and she scrunched her eyes up in attempt to pass for being asleep if the girls were going to check on her.

Little did she know, she was about to get the wakeup call she needed.

* * *

Fred trudged down the hallway of the third year Girls Dormitories, still muttering things under his breath about how Sean and James had been acting.

Not only had they completely been taking the piss with the whole 'Too-Too' thing but they had completely failed to notice his amazing climbing skills!

He instantly perked up though when he rounded the curve in the corridor and Charlotte's bedroom door came into sight.

Taking care not to make any noise, he snuck up to her bedroom door and cracked it open ever so slightly – just enough for him to peek his head around and see if she was asleep or not.

From the looks of it she was.

The curtains around her four-poster bed were still drawn, meaning he could open up the door all the way and creep inside without her noticing at all.

He tip-toed across the old wooden floor towards her bed and slowly parted the red velvet drapes at the foot of the bed. He poked his head through, expecting to find her pretending to be asleep.

Fred grinned when he found out he was right.

It didn't look like she'd heard him come in, but her eyes were squeezed together so tightly, Fred would be amazed if they ever opened again.

He chuckled quietly at her. Although he had no idea why she was clearly faking being sick and refusing to get up, he had a talent of getting things out of people. And as he pulled his head back slowly and closed the curtains with a sly smile, he knew just how to get this out of her.

Charlotte shifted slightly in bed, thinking she'd heard the bedroom door open again and scrunched her eyes together again.

There was no way in hell she was getting up just to have to face Se-

"WHAT'S NEW PUSSY CAT? WOAH, WOAH, WOAH!"

"SWEET JESUS!" Charlotte screamed, jumping about three feet in the air at the sound of the voice.

Her head darted around in all directions, trying to find the source of it. But all she found in return was the curtain on the left side of her bed swaying slightly.

"WHAT'S NEW PUSSY CAT? WOAH, WOAH, WOAH!"

Charlottes head snapped to the right, and she found herself clutching onto her bedsheets as she sat up straight in bed.

"WHAT'S NEW PUSSY CAT? WOAH, WOAH, WOAH!"

This time, Charlotte had already been looking towards the end of her bed, and because of that she caught a glimpse of what – or rather WHO – had given her that most unwanted wake-up call.

A tuft of unruly ginger hair disappearing back through the curtain.

She pursed her lips at not only the song he was singing, but also the fact that he was ACTUALLY singing that particular song! He knew how much she hated it.

And so when he popped his head back through the curtains at the end of her bed, swaying from side to side with a big grin on his face as he sang – rather loudly – she simply glared at him.

"Pussycat, Pussycat, I've got flowers and lots of hours to spend with you-"

"-FRED WEASLEY! IF YOU DON'T SHUT YOUR MOUTH RIGHT NOW SO HELP ME MERLIN YOU'LL KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE A FLYING SQUIRREL!" Charlotte roared.

Fred stopped singing almost automatically and his grin only grew wider as his eyes sparkled playfully.

"Oh good," he said sweetly. "You're up."

Charlotte's eyes widened before she scowled at him. "Am not," she huffed before throwing herself back under her covers and curling up into a little ball.

Fred rolled his eyes and moved round to the side of the bed she was facing, and pulled the curtains open to begin tugging at the covers in her hands.

"Oh Char," he called in a sing-song voice.

"Go away, Fred," she mumbled, gripping onto the sheets harder against his vice-like grip.

"But Charlotte," Fred whined. "Aren't you at least going to ask how I got into the girls dorm?"

Charlotte hesitated for only a moment before replying. Secretly she was actually interested. But he didn't need to know that. "No," she snorted, in a really bad attempt to cover up her lie. "Whatever it is, I'm sure was very stupid."

"It wasn't!" Fred cried, feigning hurt.

When Charlotte pretended to snore loudly, Fred bent down and came right up to where Charlotte's ear was underneath the covers and broke out into song again, in the most annoying, over-exaggerated voice he could muster.

"What's new, Pussycat? Woah! Woah! Woa-"

"FRED!" Charlotte shrieked in frustration, throwing the covers back off her to sit up straight and draw him daggers.

Again, he smiled sweetly at her. "Nice to see that you're up, again."

She fell back onto the mattress in defeat. "You're a pain in my backside you know that?" she grumbled, giving him an annoyed look from where she lay.

His grin turned into a smirk, and a proud one at that. "So I've been told," he teased, poking her in the side where he knew she was her most ticklish. Then his stomach rumbled, and all kind of playfulness vanished from the conversation as he was reminded of his constant need to eat. "Come on Char up and at 'em. There's some bacon with my name on it," he announced, resorting to poking her repeatedly in the side in an attempt to get her up.

"I already told Alice," Charlotte snapped, slapping his hand away. "I'm not coming down today."

"And why not?" Fred inquired, perking an eyebrow at her.

Another irritated look was sent his way before she averted her eyes and rolled back over. He waited for another few seconds before sighing audibly and running a hand through his hair.

"Well, if you're going to fake sick then at least let me join you. Come on," Fred said, the hint of an amused smile playing at the corner of his lips. "Move over."

Charlotte had been about to turn around and ask him what she was on about, but hardly had time before she was pushed over – almost out of the bed – and Fred climbed in to lie on top of the covers beside her.

"Oh yes," Charlotte grumbled. "Because people won't get the wrong idea about this," she drawled, gesturing to him as he propped himself up on one elbow on her pillow and flung his arm casually over her middle.

Fred frowned as he looked down at her. "OK, there's three major things wrong with what you just said. Number one, there's no one here to see us," he pointed out, waving a hand around the empty room. "Number two, any idiot with even half a brain cell would know that you're basically my SISTER – and so any kind of naughtiness involving you and me is just wrong on SO many levels. And finally, number three, since when do you care what other people think? Whiskers, what's wrong?"

Charlotte pursed her lips up at him, honestly not knowing how to respond. She looked away from him again to gaze out towards window, as she subconsciously started playing with the hairs on his arm that was slung across her waist.

The pair fell into an odd kind of silence – Charlotte not speaking because she didn't really know how to respond and Fred waiting expectantly for her to reply.

He didn't know how long they lay there like that, him watching her and her looking everywhere but him. But he knew that he jumped when she unexpectedly broke the silence.

"Hey Freddie?" she asked, her voice wavering a little.

"Hmm?"

"Have you noticed anything…different between Sean and James lately?" she asked, looking up at him for the first time with a sad kind of hesitant look in her eyes.

Fred blinked at her. "Is THAT why you're hidden away up here?"

"Partly," she shrugged, not sure she wanted to tell him what happened between her and Sean.

"Ah," Fred said knowingly. "The word 'partly' there incinerates that there's something else bothering you. Come on, what are you not telling me?" he prompted, nudging her playfully in the side.

"I think you mean 'insinuate', not 'incinerate'," she corrected in a small voice, mentally slapping herself for her slip-up.

"Why is everyone questioning my choice of words today?!" he implored, acting all serious at first but then smiling once he saw that it had had the right effect on her and she cracked a smile.

"There's the smile I like to see," he grinned, looking down at her. "Now come on, tell old Freddie what's up with you then."

Charlotte pressed her lips together again, wondering whether or not she should say anything.

"Do I need to beat anyone up?"

Even though he said it with a teasing grin, Charlotte knew he was being serious. And it made her all the more wary about whether or not she should tell him.

"W-Well, you-you see the thing is that-well-"

"-Yes?" he prompted.

"Well i-it's weird because-bec-because-"

"YES?" he urged.

"I-It's j-just tha-that-"

"-Oh spit it out already woman!"

"Seanheldmyhandinthelibraryon Tuesday," she confessed in a rush before covering her head up with the blanket.

She waited for it. The witty retort. Or the shocked cry. Or even a simple "Huh?".

But nothing.

She strained her ears to hear from underneath her covers, but when she still didn't hear anything, she lowered the covers just enough for her to peek her big blue eyes out from underneath and look at him.

His face was the very picture of confusion.

"Can I have that in English please?" he asked into the silence.

Charlotte gaped at him. "What part of that did you NOT get?!" she cried.

"Well you see I kind of lost you at the beginning – or I think it was the beginning. It could have been the middle mind you, you said it so fast the whole thing kind of blurred together."

She took a deep breath to calm herself before quickly averting her eyes as she said the words. "S-Sean held my-my hand in the library on Tuesday."

Fred's uncontrollable laughter filled the room and almost made her jump as she lifted her wide blue eyes to stare open-mouthed at him.

"How can you possibly be finding this funny?!" she demanded to know and she swatted at his arm just to vent her frustration.

"B-Because it is!" he managed to say in-between loud guffaws.

"It's not funny it's serious!" she insisted as she pushed herself up into a sitting position.

"Oh I see, so he didn't just hold your hand, he 'held your hand'," he sniggered with a cheeky waggle of his eyebrows.

Charlotte scowled at him. "Glad to see this amuses you," she huffed and folded her arms moodily as she fell back onto the mattress and looked away from him.

Fred's laughter slowed until he really looked at her and saw how upset she actually was. And then he felt bad about joking. "Hey," he said gently as he tilted her head back towards him. "Are you really that confused and upset about this?"

She nodded stiffly.

"Why?"

"Well why not? I mean it was so completely unexpected and I'm worried that things are possibly starting to change and I don't want them to and I really want him to just stay as my friend because if it turns into anything else I'm not sure I feel the same way about him as he might about me and it would really just mess up our friendship and I don't want that an-"

"Woah, Char breathe," Fred soothed in an attempt to calm her down, rubbing circles into the palm of her hand as he held it and brushed a few hairs out of her face. "Now tell me from the beginning, what happened."

She did as he said before she calmed herself and explained to him. "Well we were in the library, and-and I was upset about not being able to do Herology properly an-and the next thing I knew…we were sitting close together and holding hands! And I have no idea how or why!"

"You were upset?" Fred asked.

"Well yeah, I thought I was wasting his time with the whole tutoring thing," she stated in an obvious tone.

Fred smiled at her. "Char, did you ever stop to think that maybe he only held your hand BECAUSE you were upset and moved closer to you simply to comfort you and reassure you, and not in a mushy way?

Charlotte blinked at him as her mouth formed a perfect 'o' shape. "Oh," she muttered. Honestly that thought hadn't occurred to her at all, and slowly but surely, an overwhelming sense of stupidity began to wash over her. How could she not have considered that before?

"Well?" Fred prompted, already knowing the answer. She was beginning to shift uncomfortably beside him and a reddish tinge was making its way onto her cheeks. He knew this look. She was embarrassed.

"No…" she mumbled. "You really think so?"

Fred smiled that lopsided grin at her and gave her a knowing look. "I KNOW so."

"But how?"

"Because I know my friends, and I know that he wouldn't have meant to make you feel this confused over something that was clearly meant to be just a friendly gesture in order to reassure you. Just talk to him and sort it out, you'll find that it was nothing to get so freaked out over in the first place."

She bit her bottom lip nervously as she looked up at him. "You think I should talk to him about it?"

Fred shrugged. "It's your choice obviously, but I can't see how things are going to get cleared up if you don't try to move past it. And just ignoring it isn't going to make it go away."

She gave him a blank look before the corners of her mouth began to twitch up in to a smile. "When did you get so rational?" she giggled.

"Meh, I decided to ditch the dust and cobwebs for a few days," he chuckled and she nudged him playfully.

"About time," she sniggered. "If they'd have stayed there any longer you'd need to start charging them rent," she teased with a playful smirk.

Fred feigned a shocked kind of gasp. "That's not very nice," he mock-pouted.

"Well you're not very nice," she teased again.

"You're so offensive to me," he pretended to whimper into his hands.

"Your face is offensive," she smirked, knowing he wasn't taking it to heart at all and that it was all just play.

"OK missy, that's it!" he declared, and she looked up just in time to see him launch himself at her across the bed and send them both tumbling to the floor. They both hit the wooden floor hard, but Charlotte could barely think before Fred had climbed on top of her and started tickling every inch of her he could.

Her laughter rang loud in his ears as she through her head back and shrieked and the pair rolled playfully around the floor as she struggled to get away and he continued to torture her.

It was only when they bumped into Lisa's bed across the room and Fred's head hit off the headboard that they stopped rolling and both fell back onto the floor, still laughing to themselves until the sound died out and Fred cocked his head to the right to look at Charlotte.

"Still don't take it back?" he taunted, reaching out a muscly arm to poke her in the side.

She flinched at the tickly feeling in her side and giggled as she swiped his arm away. "Perhaps," she tittered, and the pair started laughing again.

When the clouds parted outside and a few rays of sun shone in through the window Fred lifted his head up off the ground and looked around him. He took in the sight of the stacks of books they'd knocked over and the scattered piles of clothes.

Oh how the girls were going to murder them when they saw all this. His eyes widened at the thought of how Alice would react.

Oh Merlin she'd go crazy.

And he definitely didn't want to be around when that happened.

"W-Well now that you're up," Fred remarked, sounding just a tad bit nervous. "Why don't we get going to class?"

Charlotte tilted her head to the left and gave him a look. "We're on the floor, technically I'm not up yet," she skilfully avoided.

Fred cracked his famous lopsided grin again as he pushed himself up and grabbed her by the hand, pulling her to her own feet too.

"Now you're up, smart-arse."

She glared at him in response. "Have I ever told you much of a pain you are?"

"You may have mentioned it once or twice," he mused.

Her scowl didn't falter for a minute.

"Char, come on. Please go and get ready?"

"No," she replied firmly as she crossed her arms and turned around.

Fred frowned at her back before a thought occurred to him and he perked up instantly, realizing how to get her downstairs.

"I'll raid your underwear drawer," he threatened in a sing-song voice, stepping sideways towards the trunk at the end of her bed.

She hesitated only for a moment before replying. "Go ahead," she huffed.

He stopped walking and his smirk broadened. "I'll parade it around the school," he black-mailed again.

This time she floundered for a full minute before gritting her jaw and taking a step back towards her bed. "Do what you want Freddie."

"I'll take it to Herbology and show everyone there, seeing as the class starts in five minutes."

Fred knew the effect that last threat would have before it even took place. And so he wasn't surprised or taken aback when she whipped her head around to scowl at him for one last time, before sticking her tongue out at him and grumbling under her breath as she scrambled towards the bathroom door.

As he flopped back down onto the floor, he commended himself on a job well-done.

"I hate you, Tails!" he heard from inside the bathroom, and he heard the shower turn on inside.

"Love you too, Whiskers!" he called back.

He heard her snort and when she said nothing else after that, he guessed she was muttering a string of profanities under her breath. He was right.

Charlotte stood there, letting the beads of hot water fall over her face and trickle down her body. She lifted up her bottle of citrusy shampoo, loving the way the scent of the oranges and peaches engulfed her and relaxed her for a minute.

She needed it.

The thought of facing Sean after realizing how stupid she'd been for not having considered what Fred said earlier made her cringe at the thought of it. And as much as she wanted to get to Herbology on time, she took extra time lathering the shampoo through her hair before rinsing it off and actually took the time to repeat it for good measure.

The soothing scent calmed her nerves, and it also helped knowing that Fred was just outside in case she freaked out ag-

Her body froze completely, and it had nothing to do with the fact that there was a gust of cold wind blowing in through the gap in the shower curtain.

It had everything to do with the sobering fact that had just occurred to her.

Fred Weasley.

Alone in her room.

Next to her trunk.

"FRED WEASLEY!" she screamed, poking her head around the shower curtain. "WHATEVER UNDERWEAR YOU'VE STOLEN AND PLAN ON USING AS BLACKMAIL PUT IT BACK RIGHT NOW!"

She heard a round of groans and then the lid of her trunk slam shut. "I hate that you know me so well!"

* * *

"I'm even colder out here than I was inside," James complained. He and Sean had just descended the great stone stairs that led out onto the grounds from the Entrance Hall, and almost immediately they were encircled in icy wind.

Sean failed to stifle a sigh as the pair made their way across the wet grass and down the path on the hill towards the cluster of trees at the base of the mountains. He could just make out the tops of the Herbology greenhouses by the far wall.

"Oh stop your whinging, we'll be there soon. Just tighten your scarf!"

"Hey, if I tighten this thing anymore I might as well be wearing a bloody noose," James defended.

Sean cast him a look out the corner of his eye. "Yeah, well if you complain about the cold anymore I'll be finding you one. Just hurry up alright? We're late."

"Pfft, don't worry about Neville. He won't be angry," James scoffed, waving a hand dismissively.

"Just because Professor Longbottom's your brother's Godfather doesn't mean you can get away with murder, James," Sean frowned disapprovingly.

"But we have a legitimate reason!" James cried defensively.

Sean stopped walking down the sloping hill, causing James to skid to a halt by his side and almost go sliding down the hill as he struggled to regain his footing.

"You raiding the bacon and sausage bowls in Fred's absence with me battering you over the head to get you to hurry up does NOT count as a legitimate reason."

"Well Alice only took a few bits before Lisa dragged her away! And Fred wasn't around to finish it off, I couldn't let it go to waste," he pointed out, trying to feign innocence.

"No," Sean corrected, stopping once again, causing James to skid for a second time.

"Bloody Hell!" Gonna warn me when you do that?" James grumbled as he caught himself on a rock before falling flat on his backside.

"One, you practically chased Alice out of the Great Hall and threatened that if she went anywhere NEAR the bacon bowl you'd 'gladly levitate her into the Whomping Willow," Sean quoted, completely ignoring James. "And two, you ate twice the amount Fred could in just one sitting," he said disgustedly, his nose wrinkling at the memory of James stuffing five pieces of bacon into his mouth at once.

James smirked at Sean, despite the growing numb feeling in the tip of his nose. "Like I said, Neville will understand."

"Oh of course he will," Sean drawled with a shake of his head.

James shot his friend an irritated look out the corner of his eyes as the pair continued on down the hill and they continued on in silence. That was until another frosty flurry of wind hurled past them.

"I'm cold," James complained, just as one of the leaves from the canopy up above their heads fell down and hit him in the face.

"God sake!" Sean sighed. "Look, the quicker you hurry up the sooner you'll be inside!"

James froze only for a second before breaking out into a full on sprint towards the Greenhouse doors, leaving Sean blinking after him in stunned silence.

"If only I'd tried that one earlier," he breathed out as he hurried after James. Sean cracked the back door open the tiniest bit to peek through, to find that Professor Longbottom had his back turned towards them as he wrote something on the board.

"Follow me," James whispered over his shoulder to Sean. He crouched down and opened the door just enough to fit through without being overly noticeable and skilfully slinked across the room to the back desk in the corner behind the twins.

Sean and James both breathed out a sigh of relief as they settled into their seats.

"Nice of you to join us boys," Neville remarked from the front of the classroom, his back still turned.

Everyone in the class turned to look at Sean and James, who likewise turned around in their own stools to glance over their shoulders. Then they realized that Neville was referring to them.

Sean cleared his throat nervously before replying. "We're very sorry Sir," he apologized sincerely.

Unbeknownst to the boys, an amused smile spread over Neville's face as he started writing the last sentence on the board. "And I trust you have an excuse as to why you're so late?"

"Absolutely," James spoke up. "Sean would be happy to explain it all to you," he said brightly, nudging Sean who shot him a dirty look in response.

"Again, our apologies Sir. We got held up. It won't happen again."

A hearty chuckle was heard as Neville turned around slowly to face the class, holding a piece of chalk in his hand and looking particularly at the boys. "Wherever James and particular bacon bowl at the Gryffindor table is concerned, it will always happen again," he laughed light-heartedly.

Both boys hung their heads in shame, knowing that it was true. Oh so very true.

"I'll tell you what boys," Neville smiled stepping away from the blackboard and walking over the cobble floor towards the back row of desk. "Carry these extra jars of dirt for me and I won't bring up your dreadful 'sneaking into my class' skills when I meet your fathers for a drink next week down the pub."

Sean and James's eyes drifted over to the two large jars of dirt by the door and shrugged to each other.

"Sure," they agreed in unison.

"Excellent," Neville clapped. "Then class, follow me!"

All that was to be heard in the Greeenhouse was the scraping of stools across the floors and irritated grumbles as students filed out one by one into the frigid air to follow Neville out along the path by the lake.

"What the hell?" James asked to the empty room.

Sean, who had already gotten up to lift his heavy jar gestured for James to follow him. "Come on," he grunted once he had a hold on his jar. "Let's go."

"I'm not going out there! It's outside!"

Sean stared blankly at his friend. "Wow, what an observation."

James glared back at him. "You know what I mean! I'm cold!"

"Yeah, and this is Fire Soil. The jars are warm idiot. Now move!"

James's face lit up at the mention of the jars being warm and he hurried across to pick one up and cradle it to his chest. "Oh," he moaned. "This is so much better than a hot water bottle!"

"Thanks, I'll be sure to remember that," Sean quipped, giving James an odd look at how happy he was that the jar was warm.

"Come on, we'd better get going or we'll be late for that too."

"Fine, fine," James agreed distractedly, following Sean out of the Greenhouse in a state of bliss. The jar was so nice and warm!

They walked along in content silence, straggling behind the main bulk of the group on their walk around the lake. It would have been a nice day had it not been so bloody cold. The few grey clouds that they could see were up over the mountains, leaving the rest of the sky blue and sunny. The group rounded the last cluster of trees, and everyone found that they were heading towards Charlie's Hut by the forest.

This was no ordinary lesson.

"What's going on?"

Rows of worn wooden tables - some looking sturdier than others - were positioned around the grass with a large terracotta plant pot sitting on each one. Big heavy looking bags of special soil and fertilizer were propped up against the table legs and two stools were tucked under the desks.

"Again, I repeat: what's going on?" James asked again, louder this time.

"One way to find out," Sean shrugged and cupped his mouth with his hands to yell out over the top of the howling wind. "LISA! ALICE!"

The twins' heads snapped around to face them, surprised at first before grinning and walking away from their group to meet them over by the hut.

"Hi guys!" Lisa greeted when she reached the boys first. Her cheeks were rosy from the cold and her sparkling eyes were glistening from the frigid wind.

"Alright?" Alice nodded when she came up behind her sister. "Why's James holding a jar of dirt like it's a baby?"

Everyone turned behind them then to see what Alice was on about. Indeed, James was caressing and hugging the jar to his body like it was the most precious thing he'd ever laid eyes on, a goofy blissed out grin on his face.

"Because he's a dork?" Sean offered.

Both girls laughed. "You're only just finding that out? We've known the boy since we were in nappies Sean, it's no secret to us," Alice chuckled.

"Too right," Lisa agreed.

"Yeah, but what we really want to know is why he's touching that thing like he's in love with it."

"Leave me and Jargette alone," James pouted, tightening his grip on the jar protectively.

"…Jargette?"

James shifted uncomfortably under Alice's gaze. "Yeah…it's like Georgette but she's a Jar so it's…Jargette."

A chorus of uncontrollable laughter filled James' ears.

"That's the most hilarious thing I've ever heard!" Lisa chortled, leaning against a desk as she gasped for air.

"Yeah – even better than the time he thought Hagrid was actually Santa that Christmas when we were 9!" Alice cackled, falling onto the grass and rolling around clutching her sides.

"Yeah mate, fair play to you. That's pretty specialist right there, it's a jar of dirt!" Sean sniggered.

James scowled at them all and hugged Jargette tighter. "It's my jar of dirt."

That just caused them to laugh louder until Charlie stepped out of his hut to come stand by Neville and the class was called to order.

"Ok everyone! Pick a table and a partner to work with and let's get started!" Neville called out and was glad to see that everyone did as he said.

Everyone except James and Sean who were looking confusedly around at everyone. How was it they all seemed to have an idea of what was going on except them?

"Alice," James hissed at the girl who was walking over to join a table with her sister. "What's going on?"

She simply smirked at him. "Not telling," she chirped and then turned on her heel to skip off.

"W-Wha? But why?" he whined.

Alice shrugged. "Think of it as payback for this morning," she winked and skipped off to her table in the front row.

James gaped after her. "She's such a bully."

"Says the boy who threatened to levitate her into a bloody murderous tree this morning," Sean droned.

"Hey, it worked!" James said defensively.

Sean rolled his eyes for what felt like the millionth time that morning, just as Charlie came over and patted them on the back.

"Come on boys, pick a table and get settled. We'll explain what we're doing when everyone's- James, why are you holding that jar of dirt?"

"Why is everyone going on about my jar of dirt?!"

"Because you look mental," Sean stated.

James narrowed his eyes at his best friend but didn't relax his hold on the jar. It was warming him up too much.

"Boys," Charlie said sternly, waiting for an answer.

"Professor Longbottom asked us to carry these out, we don't know where to put them."

Charlie thought about what Sean said before calling over his shoulder to Neville. "Oi Neville! Where do you want these jars, mate?"

Neville lifted his head from one of the clay pots he was examining and mulled that question over. "Just stick them at the front of the class by the hut boys! They can be spares in case anyone needs more!"

Sean went about doing as Neville said, and after dumping the heavy jar down by the stairs to Charlie's hut, he went and took a table in the middle of the group, not far behind Alice and Lisa. But when he got there, James was already occupying the seat beside him – still with the Jar of dirt in his lap.

"James," Charlie groaned, coming over to stand in front of the boys desk with his arms folded. "Why are you still holding the jar?"

"Because it's warm," James replied simply.

Charlie gave him a confused look. "But you're wearing a jumper, a scarf, gloves and a bunch of other layers under your robes. Why are you so cold?"

"Because that git I have for a cous-"

"Fred used up all the hot water this morning," Sean cut in, stopping James before he gave himself a royal showing up in front of Charlie.

"Of course he did," Charlie chuckled. "Typical Fred. Speaking of, where is he by the way? I haven't seen him all morning, or Charlotte for that matter," he frowned concernedly.

"I have no idea," Sean admitted. "Charlotte told Alice she wasn't coming down today – sick or something – and Fred went up to check on her."

Charlie nodded in understanding. "Well I hope she's alrigh- Oh, there she is now," he remarked, and both boys turned in time to see Charlotte come running down the hill and along the gravel path towards them, Fred running effortlessly alongside her. As she ran, she chucked her school books to Fred, who struggled to hold them all as she pulled her hair up into a messy ponytail. She took her books back just as she collapsed into a seat behind Sean and James.

"Made it," she sighed in relief.

"Speak for yourself woman," Fred grumbled as he dumped his own books down onto the desk with a heavy thud. "Gonna warn me before you lob those bloody tomes at me next time? I think I'm still concussed!" he whimpered clutching his head.

"Honestly, I don't see any difference between you supposedly concussed and what you're normally like," Sean teased with a playful smirk as he turned around in his stool to face the pair. He noticed how Charlotte shifted uncomfortably in her seat and avoided eye contact and frowned. He'd hoped they'd have been able to move past it by now, but then thought better of it when he realized they hadn't even approached the subject yet. And he made a vow to himself that he would, and soon.

"True that," James piped up as he too turned around to smirk at the pair, but instead only got blank looks. "What? No retort? No slagging? I need my slagging Fred, where's my slagging?"

"Why are you holding a jar as though it's carrying the Crown jewels and not a bunch of dirt?"

James looked down at Jargette who was still sitting in his lap and then back up at Charlotte. "No reason," he laughed nervously, a reddish tinge creeping onto his cheeks as he chucked the jar of dirt away – not caring where it landed.

"OW!"

He gulped audibly and turned slowly to find where the jar had landed, and paled visibly when he found its victim. Alice was rubbing gingerly at the throbbing lump that was starting to form on her forehead.

"What the bloody hell was that for?!" she demanded to know, holding onto the table for support. Was the world actually spinning or was it just her?

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry," James apologized in a frightened rush. He did not want to be on the receiving end of Alice's deathly Stinging Jinx. Again.

"Yeah well 'sorry' isn't going to stop the ache in my forehead is it, you twat?" she snapped, pushing Lisa away as she fussed over her.

"Yeah James, couldn't you have been a bit more careful about where you flung that stupid jar? You are a Beater after all," Lisa said, pursing her lips disapprovingly.

"Jargette is NOT a 'stupid jar'!" he yelled defensively.

"Jargette?"

James's eyes widened and he clamped his mouth shut at the slip up, and turned embarrassedly to face Charlotte – growing even more red at the amused smile on her face as she gazed at him expectantly.

"It's just a name," he murmured.

"A hilarious name! Bloody hell, Jargette! That's worse than what you named that Teddy Bear when we were 7!" Fred chortled, clutching onto the desk as he laughed.

"Hey, leave 'Mr. Snuggles' out of this."

It was Charlotte's turn to burst out laughing, and she held her sides as she laughed freely. "Mr. Snuggles?!"

James mentally slapped himself. Someone just let the ground swallow him up now? Or maybe just let some Devils Snare drop out of the sky and kill him. Either would have been preferable at that moment.

Sean, who had been scrutinizing James out of the corner of his eye the whole time found his lips curling up in a sneering smirk at the look of embarrassment on James's face. What a twat.

"Yes James, Mr. Snuggles?" he added snidely, leaning back against his desk as he watched James squirm.

"I was 7…" James mumbled back.

"So the little Teddy Bear I've found tucked under your pillow on more than ONE occasion is just a fluke?"

Fred's grin widened at the death glare James shot him. "Get stuffed Too Too," he spat, turning around and resting his chin on the desk as he stared forward at the class.

Charlotte felt Fred go rigid by her side and Sean noticed the change too. None of them could understand why James was getting so pissy over something that was obviously meant as just a joke – although Sean reckoned he had a good idea as to why.

Charlotte glanced at Fred on her left and leaned forward to place a hand on James's sagging shoulders. "James? You alright mate?" she asked in a careful voice.

"Just peachey," he bit back through clenched teeth, all too aware of the smug look on Sean's face.

"Looks like Too Too took that too far," Sean snickered.

Charlotte perked an eyebrow at that. "Too Too? Where did that one come from?"

Sean chuckled at the way Fred began beating his head off the desk as he leaned in to explain, not realizing the way Charlotte leaned backwards uncomfortably. "Well it all started when this morning w-"

"Alright guys! Pay attention please!" Charlie called from the front of the class, Neville by his side and smiling at the students.

The class quickly hushed and Sean pulled away to turn his attention towards both Professors. Truthfully Charlotte was secretly thankful, for even though she'd told Fred she would speak to Sean at some point, she wasn't sure she could right now.

"Now everyone, as you've noticed this isn't our ordinary Herbology Lesson," Neville started, taking in the sights of all the bored students faces. "As many of your parents may have told you, although I adore my subject and am very passionate about it, there is one particular plant I will not attempt to work with due to a particularly nasty experience back in my second year. And that is Mandrakes."

Some of the students failed to suppress their smiles at that while others started whispering to each other. The story of Professor Longbottom passing out in his second year in Herbology was practically famous.

"With that said," Neville spoke up again, silencing every one once more. "I've asked Professor Weasley to help me out while we re-pot Mandrake seedlings-"

"-That's what the warm soil in the jars are for," Alice hissed to Lisa, who nodded in understanding.

"-And so without further a-do, Charlie if you'd like to explain to them the safety measures please?"

Charlie nodded and stepped forward to talk to everyone. "OK guys, now I'm sure you know the drill. earmuffs on and pull them tightly down. We've bought new ones by Professor Longbottoms request, so there should be no excuse for anyone fainting, or Merlin forbid dying. But if that DOES happen, don't worry, we have special measures in place to get you to the hospital wing."

"Oh like what? Are we going on a ride on one of your blood-thirsty Dragons?" Eloise asked snidely from her seat in the back of the class.

"No actually, it's called a 'Broom' Eloise," Charlie responded coolly. "Pretty similar to the one you have shoved up your arse," he added under his breath.

"What was that Professor?"

"Oh nothing, nothing," Charlie lied to Eloise, although Neville and several people sitting in the front rows heard him and tried to contain their laughter. Fred failed miserably. "So if you'd all like to put on your earmuffs and turn your attention back to Professor Longbottom, he'll explain to you how to go about re-potting these- er- what did you call them Neville?"

"Mandrakes," he whispered back.

"Oh right – Mandrakes! Professor," Charlie smiled, stepping back and letting Neville lead the class.

"Right class, now the important thing to remember about Mandrakes is…"

* * *

Come sixth period James had thankfully recovered from the Mr. Snuggles incident, but he and Fred had started up a new argument.

"Well what about the time you thought the Tooth Fairy was going to steal all your teeth in your sleep?"

Fred gave James a dry look as he, James, Sean and Charlotte traipsed through the corridors towards Transfiguration.

"I was 5."

"And? As if that's much better than me naming my Teddy Mr. Snuggles!" James retorted as he followed Charlotte in through the classroom door.

"Guys, give it a rest? You've been arguing about this since before Potions," Charlotte moaned. She chose to sit at one of the tables near the front, hoping that being closer to McGoggles would offer a good distraction from the awkwardness with Sean. She was happy when Fred took the empty seat next to her, but frowned when James and Sean sat right behind them.

"I would, except this one over here can't accept that Mr. Snuggles tops all of my embarrassing moments put together!" Fred cried out in frustration, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at James behind them.

"Because it doesn't!" James insisted. "How about the time it took you over 15 minutes to find Russia on a map?"

"So?" Fred shrugged.

Charlotte and Sean gaped at him. "Fred it's the biggest country in the world…" Charlotte said slowly.

"That may be Whiskers, but that doesn't make it any easier to find," Fred tried to reason.

She responded by hitting her head off the desk. "Somebody else take over please," she groaned.

"No way, I think we can all agree it's a lost cause," Sean said sadly.

"I rest my case," James grinned, leaning back in his chair and putting his arms behind his head.

"No, we rest nothing. Nothing I've ever done has been worse than the Mr. S-"

"Mr. Weasley, kindly sit down and stop yelling in my class," McGonagall scolded as she breezed into the classroom and took her spot at the front in front of the board.

Fred, who hadn't even realized he had thrown his chair back and stood up during his argument with James, gave her his most charming smile and bowed exaggeratedly to her. "For you, my dear Minnie, anything."

"Call me Minnie again Mr. Weasley, and you will be doing anything for me. Anything I can get my hands on for you to do in detention," she iterated scathingly.

His smile didn't falter once. "Of course Min- I mean McGonagall," he grinned as he settled back down into his chair.

She narrowed her eyes at him from behind her specs before shaking her head and pushing them further up the bridge of her nose. "Today class you'll be pleased to learn that I have finalized the details for your projects due in December."

Fred groaned loudly and his shoulders sagged. "Does this mean I actually need to do work?"

Sean feigned a look of shock and horror at his friend. "Oh the injustice! Imagine – making us do work in school! The anarchy!"

"Oh shut up," Fred moaned. "Depending on how easy this projects going to be, I could be brain dead by Christmas."

"Like you're not already," Sean muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing!" Sean smiled innocently. He'd noticed that Charlotte hadn't said anything since McGonnagall had mentioned their projects and James apparently had noticed it too.

"Hey," he whispered to her, bringing his face close to hers. "You alright?" he asked gently, nudging her lightly and playfully.

She brushed a few stray strands of hair out of her face and nodded stiffly. "I'm fine – just, just not feeling too great," she lied.

This was what she had been dreading the most, the projects. It meant spending a load of time cooped up in the library with Sean, and depending on whether or not they sorted this out soon, they were going to be able to get on with their work splendidly or fail miserably. Charlotte knew she wanted to pass this project with a good mark, and deep down she knew she'd been putting off getting together with Sean and preparing for it all week. Now that they were being told what it was on though, she realized she couldn't run and hide anymore – from Sean or their issues.

James nodded and pulled back, giving her an inquisitive look. She looked fine to him, maybe a bit nervous for some reason but apart from that she was still the same old Whiskers.

But with the way she was tensed up and actively avoiding all kind of contact with Sean put him on edge a bit, and he started to wonder if maybe he didn't know the full story. Like something else was going on that he didn't know about.

"Your task is to develop a presentation on Animagi with your partner. You must both put in the same amount of participation, and I'd like to see some diagrams, charts, anything that will thicken your explanations of the Animagi transformations and how they occur," McGonagall explained, expecting to see Fred and James's mouths drop open in unison but instead her eyes boggled when she saw them high-five each other.

"Alright! An easy 'O' in the bag," Fred cheered, leaving a staggered McGoggles to drone on about their assignment as background noise.

"Umm are you forgetting the part she just said about charts? Diagrams? Thick descriptions? You're going to be spending just as much time in the library as the rest of us are," Sean lectured.

"Ha! Not likely! Why do you think I spent so much time mastering my Animagi transformation last year, Loony?"

"So that we could sneak out of school to help me with my time of the month?"

Fred mulled that over for a minute. "OK that's true, but just think of this as an added perk! This project is gonna be a breeze!"

"Damn right," James nodded, and he and Fred started talking about all the ways they could use their new free time to think up new pranks.

Charlotte didn't pay any attention, too wrapped up in thinking about how she was going to approach this thing with Sean without making it terribly awkward again. It was while she was thinking that she felt something tap her on the hand that was dangling by her side, and when she looked down, a little paper bird was pecking at it.

She picked it up, and instantly it stopped moving and she recognized it as a note. Charlotte unfolded it slowly, taking care not to let James or anyone else see it while she read.

"Library – 7:30?"

She recognized the neat cursive handwriting and looked over her shoulder to find Sean giving her a hopeful look as he leaned back in his chair, pretending to listen to Fred and James.

Charlotte gave a single nod of her head before turning back around and tucking the note into her pocket.

"What's that?" James asked inquisitively, causing her to jump and look between him and the note in her hand.

"It's nothing," she fibbed and shifted uncomfortably before turning her attention back to Professor McGonagall.

James eyed her suspiciously, interested to know what was in that note that she'd felt the need to lie about.

The rest of the lesson passed rather uneventfully, with Fred and James doing absolutely no work instead drafting up plans for a new prank on the Slytherins, with Sean chiming in and giving his input every so often. But for Charlotte the lesson wasn't nearly as fun.

She said something and laughed in all the right places, but they were empty one-word answers and hollow laughs.

Truth was, she was too busy freaking out about agreeing to meet Sean later to do anything except worry.

And think about what the hell she was going to do.


End file.
